UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


GTKT  OP* 


Received 
Accession  No. 


Class  No. 


M  MIGRATION 


ALLACIES 


BY 


JOHN  CHETWOOD.JR. 


VOL.  H.     NO.  1.  JUNE,  1896. 

BEACON    LIBRARY   SERIES- 

PUBLISHED  MONTHLY.  SUBSCRIPTION  $3  00  PER  ANNUM. 

Entered  at  Button  fast  Office  as  Second  Class  Matter. 

PRICE  25  CENTS.  Boston,  Mass. 


Two  Books  of  Social  Thought.    By  B.  0.  Flower 

Just  published.    CLotk^  extra,  $1.00. 
GERALD  MASSEY :  Poet,  Prophet  and  Mystic. 

Mr.  Flower  in  this  new  book,  presents  a  study  of  the  life  and 
writings  of  Gerald  Massey,  an  English  Poet  of  the  People,  who 
has  done  great  service  for  the  cause  of  Social  Democracy  in 
England,  and  whose  brave  words  for  Freedom  and  Justice  and 
the  Dignity  of  Labor  and  Manhood  and  Womanhood  are  espe- 
cially pertinent  in  the  conflict  for  Social  and  Political  and  Legal 
Justice  for  all  classes  and  both  sexes  now  beginning  in  America. 
Mr.  Flower's  object  is  to  introduce  American  readers  to  a  lofty 
and  inspiring  spirit  in  contemporary  poetry,  who  will  hearten 
the  struggle  of  the  poor  and  oppressed  for  equitable  conditions 
with  the  highest  spiritual  aims  and  hopes.  Liberal  quotation 
brings  the  reader  into  close  touch  with  the  Poet's  spirit  and  pur- 
poses, and  Mr.  Flower's  commentary,  critical  and  historical,  is 
interesting  and  suggestive.  The  parallels  he  draws  are  instruct- 
ive, and  should  touch  all  interested  in  the  new  social  thought. 
The  book  is  beautifully  gotten  up  and  illustrated  by  Laura  Lee. 
It  also  contains  a  fine  portrait  of  Massey. 

Price,  cloth,  $/.oo/  paper,  25  cents. 

THE  NEW  TIME:  A  Plea  for  the  Union  of  the  Moral 
Forces  for  Practical  Progress. 

This  new  worlc  which  has  called  forth  a  volume  of  criticism, 
both  adverse  and  favorable,  is  published  to  meet  the  wants  of 
those  who  wish  to  apply  themselves  to,  and  interest  their  friends 
in,  the  various  branches  of  educational  and  social  effort  com- 
prised in  the  platform  of  the  National  Union  for  Practical  Prog- 
ress; but  from  its  wide  sweep  of  all  the  factors  in  the  social 
problem,  it  will  also  serve  to  introduce  many  readers  to  a 
general  consideration  of  the  new  Renaissance  of  social  thought, 
and  to  realize  the  strength  and  character  of  the  evolutionary 
movement  for  a  nobler  social  science,  that  is  marshaling  all  the 
best  minds  of  the  day  in  its  ranks.  The  book  deals  with  prac- 
tical methods  of  reform  and  is  not  merely  a  bundle  of  specula- 
tions. 

The  New  York  World  says:  "  It  is  in  every  way  practical, 
every  day  common  sense,  dealing  with  facts  apd  not  theories." 

The  Chicago  Times  says:  "  Candor  is  a  marked  character- 
istic of  the  author's  treatment  of  the  various  economic  subjects 
touched  in  the  course  of  the  book.  Mr.  Flower  is  one  of  the 
prominent  "  reform"  writers  of  the  day.  He  has  done  m^re 
perhaps  than  any  other  one  writer  for  the  advancement  of  his 
fellow  men  and  tHe  improvement  of  their  condition.  His  plans, 
if  put  in  practical  operation,  would  be  productive  of  good  to  all." 

For  sale  by  all  Booksellers,  or  sent,  postpaid,  on  receipt  uf 
price  by  the  Publishers. 

THE  ARENA  PUBLISHING  COMPANY,  Boston,  Mass. 


IMMIGRATION 

FALLACIES 


BY 

JOHN  CHETWOOD,  JR. 


BOSTON 

ARENA  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

COPLEY  SQUARE 
1896 


COPYRIGHTED,  18 


JOHN  CHETWOOD,  JR. 
A?l  Rights  Reserved. 


ARENA  PRESS. 


TO 
THE   CITIZENS   OF   THE 

UNITED   STATES, 
NATIVE   AND    NATURALIZED, 

THE 
FOLLOWING    PAGES 

ARE 
INSCRIBED. 


IMMIGRATION  FALLACIES. 


1     -  ^  •*.• 

•.. 


W*iT 


IMMIGRATION  FALLACIES. 


SYNOPSIS. 


INTRODUCTORY. 

PAGE 

The  benefits  of  immigration  more  obvious  than  „ 
some  of  the  drawbacks.  In  chapters  following 
the  economic  value  of  immigration  is  conceded,, 
for  sake  of  the  argument.  Economic  objec- 
tions, however,  readily  suggest  themselves  even 
in  the  fields  of  manufacture  and  agriculture. 
Apparent  need  to  revise  estimate  of  economic 
value  of  the  immigrant  to  the  manufacturer. 
With  regard  to  agriculture,  the  rapid  decrease 
of  the  public  lands  has  an  important  bearing, 
Macaulay's  celebrated  prophecy.  The  danger 
of  over-rapid  development.  The  great  increase 
of  population  in  connection  with  immigration*  13 

CHAPTER  I. 

OUR  IMMIGRATION  POLICY.      ITS  SOCIAL  ASPECTS. 

Economic  value  of  immigration  very  great.  But 
what  are  the  effects  to  the  economic  gain  ?  ^ 
True  wealth  of  a  nation  not  measured  by  acre- 
age or  money,but  by  the  character  of  its  people. 
If  the  effects  of  immigration  are  deleterious  to 
that  character  the  economic  gain  is  dearly  ac- 
quired. Moral  considerations  and  influences 

7 


0  SYNOPSIS. 

PAGE 

predominant  in  civilization.  Every  nation,  like 
an  individual,  has  a  character  of  its  own,  has 
its  obstacles  and  problems.  What  influence 
has  immigration  on  our  great  national  prob- 
lems, past  and  present,  where  the  influence 
can  be  traced  ?  Its  influence  on  some  perni- 
cious. Others  owe  their  existence  to  it.  Mor- 
monism,  conflict  of  labor  and  capital,  munici- 
pal corruption  and  misrule 20 

CHAPTER  IT. 

IS  IT  PRACTICABLE  TO   REGULATE  IMMIGRATION,   AND 
•  WHY  HAVE   WE  THUS  FAR   FAILED  ? 

Recent  discussion  has  assumed  the  contrary  ; 
should  not  experience  teach  us  better?  The 
official  records  a  long  chronicle  of  failure. 
History  of  immigration.  Origin  of  phrases 
"  Asylum  of  the  Oppressed  "  and  "  Refuge  of 
the  Nations.11  Totally  inapplicable  to  present 
conditions.  Views  of  Revolutionary  fathers. 
They  believed  in  gradual  immigration  to  pro- 
mote rapid  and  complete  assimilation.  Utter 
amazement  of  Washington  or  Jefferson  if 
landed  to-day  in  one  of  our  large  cities.  It  is 
commonly  assumed  that  only  recent  immigra- 
tion has  been  injurious.  Figures  disprove  the 
assumption.  Startling  disclosures  in  1838. 
Criminals,  vagrants,  and  imbeciles  imported 
from  Europe  in  large  numbers.  Restrictive 
measures  passed.  Yet  new  investigation  in 
1845  showed  no  improvement.  Evil  grew  apace 
and  led  to  a  great  outbreak  in  1856.  But  the 
improvement  was  only  temporary.  Again  in 
1870  the  subject  required  attention.  But  in- 
vestigation of  1888-9  found  condition  of  things 
to  be  the  worst  in  our  history.  History  shows 
that  the  situation  has  continued  virtually  un- 


SYNOPSIS.  9 

PAGE 

affected  by  all  our  legislation.  And  the  recent 
legislation  is  fatally  deficient.  Preceding 
chapter  referred  to  baneful  effect  of  immigra- 
tion on  great  social  problems,  intemperance, 
Mormonism,  relations  of  labor  and  capital,  pau- 
perism, insanity,  crime,  etc.  The  character  of 
immigration  as  shown  by  extracts  cited  from 
the  record  show  why  influence  of  immigration 
in  these  directions  has  been  so  evil.  And  the 
the  evil  must  continue  till  character  of  immi- 
gration has  radically  changed 46 

CHAPTER  III. 

IMMIGRATION  AND  THE   RISE  OP  THE  A.  P.  A. 

Prevalent  confusion  of  thought  about  the  immi- 
gration problem.  Its  real  simplicity.  Refer- 
ence to  preceding  chapter  on  the  repeated 
failure  of  reform  as  apparent  from  the  official 
records.  Can  reform  be  accomplished  by  any 
ordinary  methods  ?  Appearance  of  A.  P.  A.  a 
tacit  assumption  that  some  kind  of  organization 
is  essential.  Is  not  assumption  well  founded  ? 
Conditions  underlying  past  failure.  Forces  for 
and  against  reform.  Large  majority  of  people 
for  it,  and  demand  growing.  Reasons  for  this. 
But  influential  reform  element  is  unorga- 
nized and  has  no  direct  pecuniary  interest  at 
stake.  The  corporations,  bosses,  etc.,  are 
organized  and  have  pecuniary  interests  of  great 
magnitude  at  stake.  Consequently  only  their 
side  will  be  ably  presented  to  Congress.  The  • 
great  moral  and  patriotic  objections  to  immi- 
gration do  not  have  a  fair  hearing.  Question 
pre-eminently  patriotic.  Affects  whole  nation. 
|  Republic  more  dependent  on  character  of  its 
(people  than  any  other  form  of  government. 
No  man  introducing  improper  elements  into 


10  SYNOPSIS. 

PAGE 

any  community  can  be  a  patriot.  The  A.  P.  A. 
must  at  least  be  credited  with  being  strong  ad- 
vocates of  reform.  Some  of  the  charges  against 
them.  A  revival  of  Know-Nothingism.  But 
why  these  constant  revivals  of  that  spirit  ?  Are 
they  not  due  to  the  great  neglect  of  the  prob- 
lems of  immigration  ?  Is  not  this  neglect  a 
plausible  reason  for  the  rise  of  the  A.  P.  A.  ?  If 
certain  charges  against  them  are  well  founded 
they  will  fail.  But  if  that  involves  renewal  of 
inaction  and  neglect,  will  not  the  country  fare 
worse  than  the  defeated  A.  P.  A-?  Can  their 
failure  be  greater  than  the  failure  of  our  im- 
migration policy  ? 72 

CHAPTER  IV. 

OUR  UNNATURAL  LAWS  OF  NATURALIZATION. 

A  flagrant  evasion  of  contract  labor  law  ;  14.000 
Italian  peasants  shipped  to  the  Northwest.  Im- 
portant election  a  year  or  two  later.  Political 
control  of  United  States  Senate  apparently  de- 
pendent on  that  of  one  district  where  not  a 
voter  could  read  or  write.  Were  these  voters 
holding  balance  of  power  the  14,000  Italians  ? 
Vast  influence  of  newly  landed  citizens  owing 
to  the  volume  and  character  of  immigration 
and  boundless  liberality  of  naturalization 
system.  Our  failure  to  improve  character 
of  immigration.  The  naturalizing  process. 
Voting  "  mills  "  of  large  cities.  Ignorant  and 
venal  voters  in  droves.  Wonder  and  scorn  of 
such  a  friendly  critic  as  Bryce.  Severe  arraign- 
ment of  naturalization  laws  by  a  Swiss-Italian 
paper  published  in  the  West,  Paper  declares 
that  great  mass  of  immigrants  are  unfit  for 
suffrage  in  five  or  even  ten  years.  They  don't 
want  it  and  are  mere  tools  of  politicians.  Hearty 


SYNOPSIS.  11 

PAGE 

endorsement  of  this  view  by  an  American  paper. 
Cowardice  of  politicians ;  afraid  to  discuss 
question.  A  United  States  senator  quoted  in 
this  connection.  Theory  of  naturalization  laws 
admirably  adapted  to  date  of  passage— 1802. 
No  large  cities  then,  no  bosses,  noun-American- 
izing influences.  These  laws  now  an  anachro- 
nism and  great  menace.  At  least  ten  years'  pro- 
bation should  be  required.  Five  now  the 
maximum  period.  Many  states  shorten  this  to 
two  or  three  or  less.  Table  given  showing  this. 
Every  voter  should  be  able  to  read  and  write 
English.  Views  of  Tammany  Hall  and  Thomas 
Jefferson  on  this  point  contrasted.  Various  de- 
fects of  present  law.  Need  of  making  ceremony 
of  naturalizing  far  more  impressive.  Great 
privilege  and  dignity  of  the  elective  franchise. .  94 

CHAPTER  V. 

EUROPEAN   RESPONSIBILITY   FOR  AMERICAN  CRIME. 

The  Mafia  trials  and  lynchings  at  New  Orleans. 
Natural  result  of  social  conditions  becom- 
ing prevalent  all  over  country.  Criminal  im- 
migration bearing  its  fruits.  Other  carnivals 
of  crime  likely  to  recur.  This  view  shifts  some 
of  the  responsibility  from  people  of  New  Orleans 
to  people  of  United  States.  People  of  New 
Orleans  seem  to  consider  their  act  justifiable. 
This  must  be  on  the  implied  ground  that  char- 
acter of  populace  made  execution  of  law  power- 
less. If  this  is  so  similar  conditions  prevail  more 
or  less  in  all  our  large  cities.  Our  criminal 
laws  are  executed  by  that  Anglo-Saxon  institu- 
tion, trial  by  jury.  Whether  it  works  properly 
depends  almost  entirely  on  character  of  sur- 
rounding population.  Jury  come  from  people 
and  must  have  some  intelligence,  education, 


12  SYNOPSIS. 

PAGE 

judicial  capacity,  and  training  in  self-govern- 
•ment.  Trial  by  jury  would  be  impossible  in 
most  parts  of  Europe.  Reasons  why.  In  New 
Orleans  it  appears  that  similar  reasons  made 
jury  trial  impossible.  Jurymen  threatened 
with  death  if  they  convicted  accused,  and  those 
who  threatened  had  many  sympathizers  in 
community.  Under  circumstances  ordinary 
legal  machinery  could  not  work.  The  inter- 
national issue.  If  Italian  officials  sent  large 
numbers  of  Mafians  to  this  country,  what  right 
has  Italy  to  complain  that  they  were  not  dealt 
with  according  to  law  ?  She  never  so  dealt  with 
them.  It  was  impossible  for  her,  and  equally 
so  for  us.  Extent  to  which  Europe  has  made 
us  a  penal  colony  for  years.  Our  claim  to  satis- 
faction and  redress 124 


INTRODUCTORY. 

The  benefits  of  immigration  are 
familiar  and  obvious,  but  with  the 
drawbacks  and  dangers  the  case  is 
different.  Some  of  the  latter  are 
below  the  surface  ;  the  influence  of 
others  is  indirect  and  not  easy  to 
trace.  So  far  as  this  little  volume 
tries  to  trace  them  its  pages- 
whatever  their  other  shortcomings 
—ought  not  to  lack  interest,  but  if 
they  do  the  fault  lies  with  the 
author  and  not  with  the  subject. 
For  the  influence  of  the  immigrant 
touches  our  civilization  at  every 
point,  and  shapes  as  no  other  in- 
fluence can  the  future  of  the 
nation. 

In  the  chapters  following,  the 
economic  value  of  immigration  is 

conceded  for  the  sake  of  the  argu- 

13 


14  INTRODUCTORY. 

ment.  The  objections  to  it  are 
placed  on  other,  if  not  higher, 
grounds.  Not  that  economic  ob- 
jections are  lacking.  On  the  con- 
trary, they  readily  suggest  them- 
selves ;  but  with  so  few  reliable 
data  available  it  is  difficult  to  de- 
termine the  weight  and  force  of 
these  economic  objections. 

Immigration  discussion  and  re- 
search, confined  as  a  rule  to  strictly 
conventional  lines,  is  based  on  the 
assumption  that,  from  a  material 
standpoint  at  least,  the  immigrant 
has  always  been  a  great  boon  to 
our  manufacturing  and  agricul- 
tural interests.  How  far  this 
assumption  is  well  founded,  how- 
ever, is  certainly  open  to  question. 

Three  or  four  years  ago  a  society 
in  a  Western  town  compiled  some 
statistics  that  proved  quite  surpris- 
ing to  the  investigators.  A  cir- 
cular was  sent  to  several  hundred 
employers  of  labor,  mostly  leading 


INTHODUCTORY.  15 

merchants  and  manufacturers  in 
various  sections  of  the  country. 
One  question  of  the  circular  was 
whether  the  immigration  of  the 
last  few  years  had  advanced  or  re- 
tarded development  in  the  various 
lines  of  industry  referred  to.  The 
replies  to  this  question  were  of  a 
nature  to  awaken  much  doubt  in 
the  minds  of  the  readers  whether 
manufacturing  interests  would  not 
on  the  whole  and  in  the  long  run 
be  better  off  without  any  more 
labor  immigration  whatever.  This 
attempt  to  feel  the  pulse  of  indus- 
try, while  not  sufficiently  extended 
to  be  at  all  conclusive,  sufficed  to 
show  that  estimates  of  the  econo- 
mic value  of  the  immigrant  to  the 
manufacturer  might  need  to  be 
considerably  revised. 

In  the  field  of  agriculture  we  can 
no  longer  ignore  the  relation  borne 
by  an  immigration  of  several  hun- 
dred thousand  per  annum  to  the 


16  INTRODUCTORY. 

rapid  increase  of  population  and 
still  more  rapid  decrease  of  the 
public  lands.  What  little  remains 
of  the  valuable  part  of  the  public 
lands  will  very  soon  be  gone.  That 
outlet  to  surplus  energy  and  allevi- 
ator of  discontent,  that  great  na- 
tional safety  valve,  we  are  already 
beginning  to  miss,  as  witness  the 
increasing  congestion  in  centres  of 
population  and  the  mad  rush  of 
the  homeless  into  Oklahoma  and 
the  Cherokee  Strip. 

Such  conditions  recall  Macau- 
lay's  prophecy  that  with  the  ex- 
haustion of  our  lands  and  the  pres- 
sure of  a  surplus  population  will 
come  the  real  test  of  our  institu- 
tions.* Those  institutions  may 

*  This  prediction  of  Macaulay,  made  in 
1857  in  a  letter  to  an  American  friend  of  his, 
is  sometimes  misquoted.  Macaulay  wrote  : 
"  As  long  as  you  have  a  boundless  extent  of 
fertile  and  unoccupied  land  your  laboring 
population  will  be  far  more  at  ease  than  the 
laboring  populations  of  the  old  world.  But 


INTRODUCTORY.  17 

prove  equal  to  that  or  any  test  in 
the  future  as  in  the  past,  but  is  it 
the  part  of  wisdom,  to  heedlessly 
hasten  the  time  of  that  test  or 
to  carefully  prepare  to  meet  it  ? 
Looked  at  in  this  way  the  mar- 
vellous growth  of  the  West  has  in 
its  rapidity  an  element  of  danger 
to  the  country  at  large.  It  is  some- 
times said  that  if  the  great  bulk  of 
the  immigrants  could  be  diverted 
from  overcrowded  cities,  mines, 
and  factories  to  the  Western  prai- 
ries all  would  be  well. 

But  the  objections  to  the  immi- 
grants on  the  score  of  their  char- 
acter and  numbers  still  hold  good 

the  time  will  come  when  New  England  will 
be  thickly  populated.  .  .  .  Wages  will  be 
as  low  and  will  fluctuate  as  much  with  you 
as  with  us.  You  will  have  your  Birming- 
hanis  and  Manchester^,  and  in  these  Bir- 
minghams  and  Manchesters  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  artisans  will  assuredly  be  some 
time  out  of  work.  Then  your  institutions 
will  be  fairly  brought  to  the  test." 
2 


18  INTRODUCTORY. 

to  a  considerable  extent.  Immi- 
gration from  East  to  West  is 
highly  desirable  for  both  sections, 
and  the  best  class  of  foreign  immi- 
gration has  great  value  for  the 
West.  But  the  very  large  class  of 
low-grade  or  labor  immigration 
brings  no  real  benefit,  and  has  not 
done  so  for  many  years. 

Of  course  progress  in  some 
directions  would  have  been  per- 
ceptibly slower  without  it.  The 
population  of  the  country  would 
be  some  million  smaller,  and  much 
good  work  might  not  have  been 
done.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  we 
should  still  have  it  to  do,  and  we 
should  also  have  a  great  deal  more 
land  left  to  till  and  occupy. 

The  twentieth  century  will  dawn  - 
upon   nearly   seventy-five  million^ 
Americans.       Their    natural    in- 
crease alone   will   soon   raise  the 
population  to  a  hundred   million, 
and  some  children  now  living  are 


INTRODUCTORY.  19 

likely  to  be  counted  in  a  census  of 
a  hundred  and  fifty  million.  Such 
figures  plainly  indicate  that  the 
present  agitation  for  a  change  of 
policy  cannot  die  out  for  any  length 
of  time.  The  demand  for  restric- 
tion will  continue  to  grow,  and  the 
need  of  it  will  soon  be  imperative. 


IMMIGRATION  FALLACIES, 


CHAPTER  I. 

OUR     IMMIGRATION      POLICY  ;      ITS 
SOCIAL   ASPECTS.* 

DURING  the  past  few  years,  public 
attention  has  been  rather  forcibly 
attracted  to  the  quantity  and  the 
quality  of  our  foreign  immigra- 
tion. The  searching  investigation 
of  the  Ford  congressional  com- 
mittee of  1888-9  revealed  a  state  of 
affairs  that  was  far  from  reassur- 
ing. Press  and  pulpit  have  agi- 
tated for  reform.  Indeed,  a  signifi- 
cant change  is  apparent  in  the 
attitude  of  the  press. 

*  This  chapter  first  appeared  in  the  Arena, 
August,  1890. 

21 


22       IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

Until  recently  the  subject  receiv- 
ed little  consideration,  but  leading 
journals  now  urge  with  practical 
unanimity  the  need  of  restrictive 
legislation,  and  several  periodicals 
in  various  parts  of  the  country 
devote  themselves  almost  exclu- 
sively to  the  discussion  of  immigra- 
tion and  kindred  questions. 

No  doubt  to  a  growing  feeling 
of  popular  discontent  with  the  pres- 
ent condition  of  affairs  may  be 
attributed  the  sudden  appearance 
of  a  new  party  in  the  West — a 
party  which  advocates  radical 
changes  in  immigration,  natural- 
ization, and  the  unlimited  pur- 
chase of  land  by  non-resident 
aliens.*  In  fact  the  signs  of  the 
times  seem  to  point  to  a  considera- 

*  This  reference  is  to  the  "  American 
Party,"  some  of  whose  tenets  in  a  modified 
form  are  now  advocated  by  the  A.  P.  A.  and 
other  similar  societies,  and  also  to  some 
extent  by  all  the  political  parties. 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.        23 

tion  or,  more  accurately,  to  a  re- 
consideration of  the  great  problem 
of  immigration. 

Of  course  there  are  various 
methods  in  which  such  a  subject 
may  be  treated.  We  may  regard 
it,  for  instance,  from  a  political 
standpoint  or  from  a  material  or 
economic  point  of  view  ;  or,  as  in- 
dicated by  the  character  of  this 
article,  the  question  may  be  con- 
sidered purely  in  its  social  aspects. 

It  is  somewhat  important  to  bear 
these  distinctions  in  mind,  because 
in  past  discussions  they  have  been 
frequently  lost  sight  of.  To  refute 
a  social  objection  to  immigration 
the  economic  argument  has  been 
adduced,  or  else  the  latter  has  been 
calmly  cited  as  if  it  covered  the 
entire  case  and  conclusively  settled 
further  discussion.  But  manifest- 
ly it  does  not  do  so.  On  the  con- 
trary, a  distinguished  writer  re- 
cently, while  conceding  the  force 


24        IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

of  the  economic  argument,  clearly 
indicated  its  inconclusive  nature. 
To  quote  from  a  magazine  article 
by  Hon.  Hugh  McCullough,  the 
writer  referred  to:  "It  is  esti- 
mated," he  says,  "that  since  the 
foundation  of  our  government 
more  than  thirteen  millions  of  im- 
migrants have  come  to  the  United 
States,  and  that  if  each  brought 
with  him  sixty  dollars  in  money 
the  pecuniary  gain  has  been  about 
eight  hundred  million,  but  the  gain 
in  this  respect  has  been  small  in 
comparison  with  what  the  immi- 
grants were  worth  as  laborers  in 
the  various  branches  of  industry. 
Estimating  them  to  have  been 
equal  in  value  to  the  slaves  in  the 
Southern  States,  they  have  added 
to  our  national  wealth  three  times 
as  much  as  our  national  debt 
amounted  to  at  the  close  of  the 
war ! "  But  the  writer  goes  on 
most  pertinently  to  remark,  the 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.        25 

italics  not  being  his:  "  What  the 
offsets  may  be  to  this  enormous 
gain  is  yet  to  be  determined.  The 
true  wealth  of  a  nation  is  not  to 
be  measured  by  acreage  or  money, 
but  by  the  quality  of  its  people. 
If  the  effects  of  foreign  immigra- 
tion should  prove  to  be  deleterious 
to  the  character  of  the  population 
the  gain  referred  to  would  have 
been  dearly  acquired." 

These  words  are  most  striking 
and  suggestive.  The  common- 
weal, which  is,  after  all,  but  an- 
other name  for  Commonwealth, 
does  not  depend  solely  or  chiefly 
on  material  resources  or  on  the  ex- 
tent of  the  national  domain.  Of 
true  national  greatness  material  re- 
sources, however  important  an  ele- 
ment, are  not  the  origin  or  source. 
The  whole  history  of  the  human 
race  shows  that  moral  consider- 
ations, moral  influences  and  ten- 
dencies are  far  more  permanent 


26        IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

and  lasting.  Upon  the  character 
of  the  people  has  national  greatness 
depended  in  the  past  ;  upon  the 
character  of  her  people  does  Ameri- 
;can  greatness  and  American  civi- 
lization depend  to-day. 

Such  a  reflection  raises,  or  should 
raise,  the  whole  subject  of  immi- 
gration above  mere  partisan  con- 
siderations and  place  it  upon  a 
vastly  higher  and  broader  plane. 
What  bearing  does  immigration 
have  upon  the  character  of  our 
people  ?  What  influence  does  it 
have  in  moulding  and  developing 
the  character  of  the  nation  ? 

It  is  not  customary  to  speak  of  a 
nation's  character  in  this  sense. 
Yet  every  nation  manifestly  has  a 
character  of  its  own  as  distinct 
as  those  of  the  individuals  who 
compose  it.  And,  to  take  a  step 
further,  we  may  say  without 
pressing  the  analogy  too  far,  that 
as  the  character  of  the  individual 


IMMIGRATION  FALLACIES.        27 

is  shaped  and  often  strengthened 
by  the  very  obstacles  with  which 
his  destiny  confronts  him,  the  na- 
tional character  is  determined  very 
largely  by  the  success  of  a  nation 
in  removing  or  overcoming  the 
barriers  which  lie  in  the  path  of 
its  development,  or  in  other  words 
upon  the  solution  of  what  are 
called  national  problems. 

Our  own  nation's  progress  and 
character,  for  example,  obviously 
depend  upon  the  temper  in  which 
we  face  our  national  problems  and 
the  resolution  we  display  in  grap- 
pling with  them,  and  a  little  con- 
sideration will  show  that  the  rela- 
tions which  immigration  bears  to 
certain  of  these  problems  assume 
an  importance  which  can  scarcely 
be  overestimated — towards  the  at- 
titude of  labor  to  capital,  for  in- 
stance, or  to  purity  of  the  ballot, 
towards  the  liquor  traffic,  or  Mor- 
monism. 


IV.IB,;ITYJ 


28        IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

With  regard  to  Mormonism  it 
might  perhaps  be  hoped  that  im- 
migration will  act  to  some  extent 
as  a  corrective  of  the  evil  and  ulti- 
mately aid  us  in  supplanting  it. 
Immigration  of  the  rigKt  sort 
would,  no  doubt,  exert  such  an 
influence.  Up  to  the  present  time, 
however,  it  does  not  appear  to 
have  done  so.  On  the  contrary, 
Mormonism,  though  of  native 
birth,  has  been  nurtured  almost 
entirely  upon  foreign  immigra- 
tion. The  growth  and  prosperity 
in  this  nineteenth  century  of  such 
an  institution,  "the  twin  relic  of 
barbarism,"  is  a  phenomenon 
which  has  amazed  the  world  and 
become  our  national  reproach. 

For  many  years  we  employed 
against  it  every  agency  at  our 
command.  But  Mormonism  con- 
tinued to  baffle  all  the  efforts  of 
government  and  people.  We 
could  not  suppress  it.  It  was  not 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.       29 

even  checked,  but  continued  to 
expand  in  various  directions,  and 
its  adherents  increased  faster  than 
the  "Gentile"  population.  And 
why  ?  Because  the  supply  is,  or 
has  be6n,  practically  inexhausti- 
ble, being  constantly  renewed 
among  the  nations  of  Europe. 
For  the  Mormons  make  few  con- 
verts in  this  country  except  among 
immigrants  lately  landed.  Their 
methods  and  motives  are  too  well 
known,  and  education  and  intelli- 
gence are  too  common.  But  their 
agents  were  for  many  years  busily 
at  work  in  various  quarters  of 
Europe.  Thousands  of  ignorant, 
unsuspicious  foreigners  have  been 
inveigled  to  the  West  and  brought 
into  the  fold. 

The  fact  is  that  Mormonism 
would  have  yielded  to  the  force  of 
public  opinion  much  sooner  than 
it  did  but  for  the  constant  acces- 
sions from  abroad  that  recruited, 


30        IMMIGRATION    FALLACIES. 

yes,  and  vastly  multiplied  its  ranks. 
Recent  legislation  is  supposed  to 
have  solved  the  ' '  Mormon  Prob- 
lem," so  far,  that  is,  as  legislation 
can  accomplish  the  task. 

But  the  social  and  moral  evil 
already  incurred  is  almost  incal- 
culable. For  years  to  come  it  will 
tax  all  the  resources  of  church  and 
state  to  counteract  the  results  of 
Mormon  rule.  And  anyone  who 
has  witnessed  the  recent  growth 
of  Mormonism,  and  its  extension 
into  new  territories,  may  well 
hazard  a  doubt  as  to  whether  the 
problem  can  be  entirely  solved  dur- 
ing the  existence  of  our  present 
system  of  immigration. 

The  present  relations  of  capital 
and  labor  constitute  a  grave 
problem  to  every  civilized  nation. 
Time  was  when  we  were  disposed 
to  imagine  that  we  should  escape 
most  of  the  dangers  and  perplexi- 
ties that  arise  from  a  conflict  be- 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.        31 

tweeii  them.  But  the  events  of 
the  past  few  years  have  made  us 
sadder  and  wiser.  During  the  ses- 
sions of  the  congressional  com- 
mittee in  1888-9,  it  will  be  remem- 
bered, careful  computations  made 
by  Mr.  Powderly  and  other  leaders 
among  the  working-men  indicated 
that  an  enormous  number  of  labor- 
ing men  were  living  in  enforced 
idleness.  A  million  Americans, 
many  of  course  men  of  family, 
were  estimated  to  be  out  of  em- 
ployment, seeking  work  and  find- 
ing none.  And  the  condition  of 
things  is  not  very  much  better  at 
the  present  time. 

Mr.  Powderly  attributed  this 
state  of  affairs  very  largely  to  the 
competition  of  foreign  immigrants. 
But  the  proof  of  such  an  assertion 
did  not  depend  upon  his  state- 
ments. The  whole  drift  of  the 
testimony  taken  before  the  com- 
mittee showed  in  the  clearest  man- 


32        IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

ner  that  multitudes  of  working- 
men  were  being  supplanted  in 
various  quarters  by  the  hordes  of 
pauper  and  contract  labor.  And 
this  iniquitous  and  unjust  competi- 
tion has  been  going  on  for  years, 
with  hardly  a  voice  raised  till  re- 
cently in  behalf  of  our  unfortu- 
nate countrymen. 

And  yet  workingmen  have  been 
in  many  ways  such  an  object  of 
solicitude  to  our  political  econo- 
mists, philanthropists,  and  states- 
men !  During  the  presidential 
campaign  of  1888,  both  political 
parties  discussed  the  tariff  with 
special  reference  to  the  physical 
condition  of  the  workingmen. 
One  party  urged  the  advantage  of 
cheap  clothes  and  cheap  markets. 
The  other  promised  high  wages  to 
keep  Americans  from  sharing  the 
fate  of  the  underfed  laborer  of 
Europe.  Meanwhile  both  parties 
studiously  ignored  the  rapid  in- 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.        33 

crease  on  our  own  soil  of  the  un- 
derfed individual  in  question  ! 

Among  the  audiences  that  faced 
the  campaign  speakers  were 
hundreds,  perhaps  thousands,  of 
the  ' f  unemployed  million  ! "  How 
the  professions  of  the  politicians 
must  have  savored  of  mockery  to 
these  men !  To  them  it  was  not  a 
question  of  good  clothes  or  good 
living,  but  of  work  or  starvation, 
of  life  or  death.  After  listening 
to  the  arguments  they  might 
bitterly  have  asked,  "Is  not  the 
life  more  than  meat,  and  the  body 
than  raiment  f  " 

Meantime  the  tide  shows  no 
signs  of  ebbing.  Though  fluctu- 
ating at  intervals  it  steadily 
gathers  volume  with  each  suc- 
cessive decade.  If  it  continues  to 
rise,  what  must  be  the  lot  of  the 
laboring  classes  whose  welfare  is 
such  an  object  of  concern  ?  Alas 
for  the  mischief  that  has  already 


34        IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

been  wrought  !  Dark  enough  at 
best  appears  to  be  the  future  of 
the  American  working  women, 
many  of  whom  in  large  cities  are 
already  obliged,  it  seems,  to  work 
for  wages  that  barely  suffice  to 
keep  body  and  soul  together.  We 
look  upon  slavery  as  a  thing  of  the 
past,  but  does  not  unrestricted 
foreign  immigration  mean  virtual 
slavery  to  thousands  of  our  coun- 
trymen and  countrywomen  ? 

As  for  the  character  and  intelli- 
gence of  this  swarm  of  invaders, 
does  it  average  higher  than  our 
own  ?  It  might  perhaps  be  some 
compensation  if  we  could  think  so. 
But  it  is  impossible  to  take  so 
sanguine  a  view.  To  be  able  to  do 
so  would  be  far  from  flattering  to 
our  self-esteem.  The  proportion 
of  the  undesirable  element  is  too 
great.  So  large  an  infusion  of 
contract  and  pauper  labor  is  not 
likely  to  raise  our  standard  of  in- 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.       35 

telligence  and  morality.  Indeed, 
among  certain  recent  importa- 
tions, morality  seems  conspicuously 
absent.  Notwithstanding  our  ex- 
perience with  polygamy  in  the 
West,  we  are  submitting  to  the 
introduction  of  a  system  of  poly- 
andry in  the  East,  practised  by 
races  of  men  who  occupy  them 
selves  when  opportunity  offers  in 
rifling  and  mutilating  the  bodies 
of  the  dead.* 

Besides  the  direct  menace  to  the 
individual  and  the  state  involved 
in  a  continuation  of  our  present 
policy,  another  consideration  is  in- 
volved. We  have  already  within 
our  borders  a  fair  supply  of  anar- 

*  This  was  written  shortly  after  the  Johns- 
town flood.  From  some  of  the  dead  vic- 
tims of  that  disaster  jewelry  was  torn  by 
bands  of  savage  Hun  or  Bohemian  miners. 
Large  numbers  of  these  people  were  re- 
ported to  have  a  regular  organized  system 
of  polyandry,  with  five  or  ten  husbands  to 
one  wife. 


36        IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

chists,  communists,  nihilists,  and 
all  that  ilk.  The  Pittsburg  and 
Chicago  riots  made  us  painfully 
aware  of  their  presence  and  num- 
bers. We  have  been  disposed  to 
assume,  however,  that  we  should 
never  share  the  experiences  of  for- 
eign governments  in  dealing  with 
these  classes.  The  conditions  here 
were  all  so  different. 

But  ever  since  these  riots  anar- 
chist and  communist  have  con- 
tinued to  come.  And  much  of 
our  pauper  and  contract  labor  and 
criminal  immigration  affords  an 
excellent  field  of  labor  for  the  en- 
terprising anarchist  or  communist. 
Moreover,  a  million  of  unemployed, 
whether  native  or  foreign,  consti- 
tute of  themselves  inflammable 
and  dangerous  material  in  any 
community.  The  enemies  of  all 
law  and  government  are  adepts 
in  manipulating  such  a  material. 
The  conditions  of  society  here,  in 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.        37 

fact,  no  longer  differ  very  widely 
from  those  abroad,  and  each  year 
sees  an  increasing  resemblance 
between  them. 

In  the  municipal  growth  and 
development  of  this  country,  im- 
migration has  always  played  a 
most  important  part.  Probably 
no  one  deems  its  influence  to  have 
been  altogether  beneficial.  Many 
of  our  best  and  worthiest  citizens, 
judging  from  their  recent  utter- 
ances, are  coming  to  regard  it  as 
practically  an  unmixed  evil.  A 
few  extracts  from  the  proceedings 
of  a  meeting  held  in  New  York, 
in  1889,  may  serve  to  illustrate 
the  sentiment  which  was  even  then 
growing.  The  object  of  the  meet- 
ing was  to  promote  evangelizing 
the  masses,  and  the  list  of  mem- 
bers, clerical  and  lay,  comprised 
many  representative  men. 

The  distinguished  chairman 
stated,  by  way  of  introduction, 


38       IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

that  the  gathering  was  not  secta- 
rian, but  Christian  and  thoroughly 
American,  and  of  great  importance 
both  to  the  metropolis  and  to  the 
nation.  Men  were  being  forced  to 
recognize  the  enormous  dispropor- 
tion of  foreigners  to  natives  in  the 
large  American  cities.  No  such 
disproportion  existed  elsewhere 
in  the  civilized  world. 

In  London  the  proportion  of 
foreign  population  to  native  was 
about  two  per  cent.  In  the  city 
of  New  York  over  eighty  per  cent 
of  the  population  was  of  foreign 
birth  or  parentage.  To  this  fact 
the  speaker  attributed  most  of  the 
vice,  crime,  packed  primaries, 
bribery  of  voters,  bossism  in  poli- 
tics, and  fraudulent  and  farcical 
elections.  The  addresses  that  fol- 
lowed were  very  instructive. 

It  appears  that  in  1840  the  city 
contained  one  Protestant  church 
to  every  2,000  people  ;  in  1880,  one 


IMMIGRATION  FALLACIES.       39 

to  3,000  ;  in  1888,  one  to  4,000. 
In  some  of  the  uptown  wards,  where 
the  best  showing  was  made,  one 
church  sufficed  for  5,000  people, 
while  there  was  one  saloon  to  125 
people.  The  total  population  of  the 
city  was  about  1,500,000,  and  the 
total  membership  of  the  Protes- 
tant churches  only  about  100,000. 
These  figures  ought  to  have  a 
deep  significance  not  only  for 
Christianity,  but  for  the  whole 
people.  Any  investigation  would 
show,  as  the  reports  of  the  meet- 
ing indicate,  that  vast  amounts  of 
money,  time,  and  labor  are  ex- 
pended in  ministering  to  the  spir- 
itual, social,  and  physical  needs  of 
the  masses  of  the  city.  And  it 
might  be  difficult  for  a  candid  and 
competent  observer  to  disparage 
either  the  motives  or  the  methods 
of  those  who  are  thus  engaged  in 
laboring  for  humanity.  For  much 
of  the  work  is  well  organized  and 


40       IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

also  thoroughly  earnest  and  prac- 
tical. The  outlook,  however, 
must  be  discouraging  even  to  the 
most  ardent  philanthropist.  Nor 
is  the  situation  materially  im- 
proved by  including  in  our  esti- 
mates the  members  of  the  Eo- 
man  Catholic  communion.  Sta- 
tistics show  that  in  the  city  of 
New  York  the  proportion  of  the 
adherents  of  Christianity  to  the 
total  population  is  constantly  and 
rapidly  diminishing.  Not  only  do 
the  churches  fail  to  make  head- 
way, they  are  rapidly  falling  be- 
hind. It  is  impossible  to  make 
much  impression  on  the  dense 
masses  of  immigrants  who  are 
constantly  pouring  in.  The  noble 
aim  of  the  association  of  churches 
is  to  Christianize  and  to  Ameri- 
canize the  foreign  element.  Under 
existing  circumstances,  success  in 
either  direction  is,  humanly  speak- 
ing, impossible.  While  one  immi- 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.        41 

grant  is  being  transformed  into  an 
American  and  a  Christian,  a  dozen 
of  his  compatriots  have  arrived  to 
claim  the  same  kind  offices.  It  is 
like  an  attempt  to  cleanse  the 
Augean  stables. 

Such  a  comparison  does  not 
necessarily  involve  any  disparage- 
ment of  the  new-comers.  It  does 
not  raise  the  much  vexed  question 
as  to  how  many  of  them  are  of  a 
desirable  class.  It  might  be  frank- 
ly conceded  for  the  purpose  of  ar- 
gument that  nine-tenths  of  them 
would  furnish  good  material  for 
American  citizenship  under  favor- 
able circumstances. 

But  human  nature  is  very  much 
the  same  with  every  race,  and  few 
men  could  withstand  the  evil  in- 
fluences that  surround  the  immi-. 
grant  landing  in  one  of  our  large 
cities.  A  recent  writer  who  took 
part  in  the  proceedings  of  the 
meeting  referred  to  says  : 


42        IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

"  Few  men  appreciate  the  ex- 
tent to  which  they  are  indebted  to 
their  surroundings  for  the  strength 
with  which  they  resist  or  do  or 
suffer.  All  this  strength  the  im- 
migrant leaves  behind  him.  He 
is  isolated  in  a  strange  land,  per- 
haps doubly  so  because  of  a  strange 
speech.  ...  A  considerable  part 
of  our  American-born  population 
are  apparently  under  the  impres- 
sion that  the  ten  commandments 
are  not  binding  west  of  the  Mis- 
souri. Is  it  strange,  then,  that 
those  who  come  from  other  lands, 
whose  old  associations  are  all 
broken  up,  and  whose  reputations 
are  left  behind,  should  sink  to  a 
lower  moral  level  ?  Across  the 
seas  they  suffer  many  restraints 
which  are  here  removed.  Better 
wages  afford  larger  means  of  self- 
indulgence.  Often  the  back  is  not 
strong  enough  to  bear  prosperity, 
and  liberty  too  often  lapses  into 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.        43 

license.  Our  population  of  foreign 
extraction  is  sadly  conspicuous  in 
our  criminal  records.  This  ele- 
ment, in  1870,  formed  twenty  per 
cent  of  the  population  of  New  Eng- 
land and  furnished  seventy-five 
per  cent  of  the  criminals.  That  is, 
it  was  twelve  times  as  much  dis- 
posed to  crime  as  the  native  stock." 

Yet  it  appears  that  these  men, 
whose  associations,  moral  re- 
straints, and  religious  ties  are  all 
broken  up,  are  in  numberless  in- 
stances inaccessible  to  the  influ- 
ences of  either  Christianity  or  phi- 
lanthropy. They  are  practically 
isolated  on  account  of  their  vast 
numbers  as  well  as  their  natural 
but  unfortunate  tendency  towards 
aggregation. 

Their  situation  concerns  the  state 
in  its  sphere  as  vitally  as  it  does 
Christianity  itself.  The  interests 
of  society  imperatively  forbid  the 
segregation  of  multitudes  of  people 


44       IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

from  the  influences  and  restraints 
of  religion.  The  most  pronounced 
agnostic  or  skeptic  would  hardly 
hold  otherwise.  And  nothing  can 
be  more  opposed  to  the  spirit  and 
genius  of  our  institutions  than 
the  aggregation  of  masses  of  for- 
eigners upon  our  soil.  Our  policy 
has  always  been  just  the  reverse. 
Every  consideration  demands  the 
speediest  possible  assimilation,  in 
their  interest  as  well  as  our  own. 

We  stand  to-day  on  the  threshold 
of  the  second  century  of  our  na- 
tional life.  In  spite  of  all  draw- 
backs and  mistakes  boundless  op- 
portunities are  before  us,. and  the 
future  is  largely  in  our  own  hands. 
In  Emerson's  inspiring  words, 
"  We  live  in  a  new  and  exceptional 
age.  America  is  another  name 
for  opportunity.  Our  whole  his- 
tory appears  like  a  last  effort  of 
the  Divine  Providence  in  behalf  of 
the  human  race." 


IMMIGRATION    FALLACIES.        45 

Some  of  the  nation's  problems 
have  already  been  solved.  Various 
others  can  and  must  be  solved. 
For,  as  Mr.  Bryce  has  recently  re- 
minded us  in  The  American  Com- 
monwealth, our  government  and 
our  legislation  frequently  fail,  but 
the  people  so  far  have  been  equal 
to  every  emergency  in  their  his- 
tory. 

To  verify  Emerson's  prediction, 
however,  to  work  out  our  political 
destiny  and  develop  the  highest 
type  of  civilization,  a  radical 
change  in  our  system  of  immigra- 
tion seems  absolutely  essential. 
The  instincts  of  self-protection,  not 
to  say  self-preservation,  require 
such  a  change.  No  human  insti- 
tutions can  endure  indefinitely  the 
strain  which  our  present  policy,  if 
persisted  in,  will  inevitably  put 
upon  our  social  and  political  life. 

If  we  cannot  sift  the  immigra- 
tion which  is  pouring  in  upon  us 


46        IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

from  every  quarter  of  the  globe— 
and  every  effort  to  do  so  hitherto 
has  proved  abortive — should  riot  a 
sense  of  duty  and  responsibility  to 
ourselves  and  our  children,  as  well 
as  to  the  human  race,  impel  us  to 
close  the  doors  entirely  for  a  time, 
or  at  least  to  make  the  attempt  ? 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.        47 


CHAPTER  II. 

IS     IT    PRACTICABLE    TO    REGULATE 
IMMIGRATION  ?  * 

IN  other  words,  are  not  the 
"expellent  influences  of  Europe/' 
coupled  with  "  the  attractive  in- 
fluences of  America,"  too  strong 
for  us  to  resist  ?  A  recent  exam- 

*  First  published  in  the  Overland  Monthly, 
Feb.  1894.  No  such  thought  has  been  ap- 
parent in  recent  discussion.  It  is  generally 
assumed  that  immigration  evils  will  be  cor- 
rected, and  various  remedies  are  proposed.. 
But  practical  men  manifest  great  distrust  of 
the  remedies.  During  a  recent  debate  in  Con- 
gress an  experienced  member  of  the  House 
declared  that  the  present  immigration  laws 
are  of  no  practical  use,  and  that  the  exam- 
ination of  arriving  immigrants  was  a  mere 
farce.  In  short,  the  remedies  do  not  reach 
the  disease. 


48        IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

ination  of  certain  congressional 
records  and  official  documents  sug- 
gested the  disquieting  question. 
In  answer,  the  appended  extracts 
from  that  record  may  or  may  not 
appear  conclusive,  but  they  cer- 
tainly warrant  the  question,  which 
in  the  light  of  more  than  fifty 
years  of  experiment — and  failure 
—cannot  well  be  deemed  prema- 
ture. Great  as  the  evils  of  unre- 
stricted immigration  are  admitted 
to  be,  history  has  yet  to  record  any 
real  restriction.  The  various  bar- 
riers erected  at  Castle  Garden  and 
elsewhere  do  not  seem  to  have  de- 
served the  name.  They  have  had 
about  as  great  an  influence  over 
the  rising  tide  of  immigration  as 
.that  which  is  commonly  ascribed 
to  the  familiar  domestic  utensil  of 
Mrs.  Partington  when  applied  to . 
the  waves  of  the  Atlantic. 

The  materials   for  a  history  of 
our      foreign      immigration     are 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES-        49 

abundant  and  accessible,  needing 
only  to  be  compiled  and  arranged. 
Indeed  the  full  significance  of  the 
subject  can  hardly  be  estimated 
until  we  realize  that  it  has  a  his- 
tory, that  the  difficulties  of  to-day 
are  practically  the  difficulties  of 
twenty  years  ago,  of  thirty  and  of 
fifty  years  ago,  and  that  these  diffi- 
culties and  the  ultimate  peril  are 
foreshadowed  in  the  annals  of  the 
eighteenth  century. 

In  tracing  the  record  of  immi- 
gration it  would  be  convenient  to 
divide  the  past  century  into  two 
periods  of  nearly  equal  length. 
The  evils  of  immigration  and  its 
perplexities  were  first  recognized 
about  1838,  and  since  that  time 
frequent  attempts  have  been  made 
to  discover  a  suitable  remedy.  The 
half  century  of  national  existence 
prior  to  1838  witnessed  no  efforts 
to  regulate  and  no  practical  ex- 
perience with  the  problem.  It 


50        IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

was  a  period  of  theory  rather  than 
fact,  or  rather  the  period  when 
theory  preceded  fact. 

But  this  period  of  theory  should 
not  on  that  account  be  ignored,  as 
it  had  no  small  influence  on  subse- 
quent events.  Tradition  ascribes 
to  the  earlier  part  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  or  the  close  of  the 
eighteenth,  the  origin  of  several 
abstract  political  maxims  which 
have  been  thought  to  indicate  our 
true  immigration  policy  and  enable 
America  to  fulfil  her  responsibil- 
ities to  "the  human  race."  Ac- 
cording to  one  of  these  maxims, 
the  country  was  destined  for  the 
"asylum  of  the  oppressed."  An- 
other, still  more  sweeping  in  its 
scope,  made  it  incumbent  upon  us 
to  be  the  "  refuge  of  the  nations." 
In  this  practical  age  and  period  of 
stern  fact,  it  seems  odd  that  these 
vague  generalities  should  retain 
much  force  or  vitality,  yet  they 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.        51 

are  constantly  to  be  encountered 
in  current  literature. 

The  age  responsible  for  them, 
however,  was  one  of  protest  and 
revolt.  The  colonies  of  Great 
Britain  had  furnished  a  "  refuge  " 
and  "asylum"  for  the  victims  of 
religious  intolerance  and  political 
proscription,  and  such  victims 
America  was  always  to  welcome. 
But  to  apply  to  present  conditions 
the  terms  referred  to  seems  very 
absurd.  And,  as  has  been  appar- 
ent in  recent  discussion,  it  involves 
a  very  plain  matter  in  a  hopeless 
confusion  of  thought.  A  condi- 
tion confronts  us,  not  a  vague  and 
irrelevant  theory.  We  are  now 
affording  an  asylum  to  the  insane, 
to  criminals,  and  to  paupers,  in- 
stead of  to  the  "oppressed"  classes 
of  the  old  world,  The  word  "ref- 
uge "  has  become  equally  inappro- 
priate. A  paper  read  before  a 
prominent  workingrnen's  associa- 


52       IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

tion  some  time  ago  bore  the  signif- 
icant title,  "The  Refuge  of  the 
Nations,  or  the  Refuse — which  ?  " 

Perhaps  one  reason  for  the  per- 
ennial recurrence  of  the  phrases  in 
question  is  the  possible  association 
they  may  have  in  our  minds  with 
the  great  leaders  of  1789,  with  Jef- 
ferson, for  instance,  or  Washing- 
ton himself.  No  association  of  the 
kind  could  be  more  misleading, 
however,  or  less  warranted  by 
facts.  While  the  supposed  views 
of  these  statesmen  may  have  had 
considerable  weight,  their  real 
ideas,  although  they  have  a  direct 
bearing  upon  immigration,  have 
been  entirely  overlooked. 

It  is  most  unfortunate  as  well 
as  singular  that  such  is  the  case. 
For  to  our  Revolutionary  era  and 
its  teachings  we  may  turn  with 
especial  confidence.  The  signers 
of  the  Declaration  and  the  f  ramers 
of  the  Constitution  did  not  confine 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.        53 

their  attention  solely  to  the  need 
of  their  own  generation.  The 
nature  of  their  task  compelled 
them  to  anticipate  its  results,  and 
gave  them  an  almost  prophetic  in- 
sight into  the  country's  future. 
And  so  we  find  the  leaders  of  1Y89 
debating  many  questions  that  have 
since  come  to  assume  great  prac- 
tical importance  ;  hence  the  special 
value  of  their  writings. 

Prominent  among  the  questions 
referred  to  was  that  of  immigra- 
tion, and  the  views  of  our  ances- 
tors on  this  subject  would  surprise 
a  generation  accustomed  to  the 
extreme  liberality  of  the  present 
system.  Indeed  it  is  safe  to  say 
that  in  no  respect  have  we  made 
so  wide  a  departure  from  the  prin- 
ciples and  traditions  of  1789  as  in 
encouraging  and  permitting  indis- 
criminate foreign  immigration. 

Not  that  the  problem  had  then 
assumed  its  present  proportions. 


54       IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

A  century  ago  the  journey  from 
Europe  to  America  occupied  almost 
as  many  months  as  it  now  requires 
days,  and  arrivals  were  numbered 
by  the  hundred  instead  of  by  the 
hundred  thousand.  But  the  matter 
very  soon  became  one  of  anxiety 
and  apprehension,  as  the  writings 
of  Washington,*  Hamilton, f  Mad- 
ison, and  others  clearly  reveal. 
These  statesmen  evidently  favored 
a  very  gradual  immigration  as 
best  adapted  to  a  rapid  and  com- 
plete assimilation.  Nor  was  such 
a  feeling  confined  by  any  means 
to  the  conservative  members  of 
the  Federalist  party.  On  the  con- 
trary, Thomas  Jefferson,  the  ora- 
cle of  modern  democracy,  believed 
in  careful  selection  and  restriction. 
That  great  statesman,  in  fact, 

*  Sparks'  Life  and  Letters  of  Washington, 
vol.  xi,  pp.  2,  392. 

f  Works  of  Hamilton,  published  by  order 
of  Congress,  vol.  7,  pp.  774-6. 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.        55 

clearly  foresaw  and  predicted  some 
of  the  very  evils  which  unrestricted 
immigration  has  brought  in  its 
train. 

Perhaps  the  best  way  to  point 
the  contrast  already  alluded  to  be- 
tween 1789  and  1893  is  by  aid  of 
the  imagination,  picturing  to  our- 
selves the  effect  of  certain  features 
of  our  civilization  upon  the  minds 
of  Washington  or  Jefferson,  had 
they  the  opportunity  to  behold 
them.  Were  these  statesmen  to 
return  and  visit  some  of  our  large 
cities  at  the  present  time  they 
might  have  reason  to  think  they 
stood  on  foreign  soil.  They  could 
walk  for  miles  through  the  French 
quarter,  the  German  quarter,  the 
Italian,  Spanish,  Bohemian,  or 
Chinese  quarters,  where  a  foreign 
language  is  actually  of  more  value 
than  their  native  tongue.  Vast 
" colonies"  of  these  people  would 
appear  before  their  bewildered 


56        IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

eyes,  inevitably  taking  the  color 
of  their  surroundings,  retarding 
the  progress  of  assimilation,  and 
complicating  in  every  way  the 
moral,  social,  and  political  prob- 
lems of  the  surrounding  commu- 
nity. 

Subsequent  to  the  administra- 
tions of  Washington,  and  Jeffer- 
son a  considerable  period  elapsed 
before  immigration  claimed  or  re- 
ceived much  attention.  Before  the 
discovery  and  application  of  steam 
it  had  not  assumed  much  practical 
importance.  Some  fifty  years  ago, 
however,  the  interest  of  the  people 
began  to  awaken,  mindful,  per- 
haps, of  the  forebodings  and  warn- 
ings of  a  preceding  generation. 

The  real  history  of  immigration, 
as  already  stated,  may  be  said  to 
date  from  1838,  a  period  midway 
between  our  own  time  and  the 
close  of  the  revolution,  and  we 
have  no  trustworthy  record  of  the 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.        57 

condition  of  affairs  at  an  earlier 
date.  But  in  1838  Congress  began 
a  series  of  examinations  into  the 
abuses  of  immigration  and  natural- 
ization, which,  renewed  from  time 
to  time,  finally  culminated  in  the 
labors  of  the  Ford  committee  of 
1888-9.  With  such  a  record  at  our 
disposal  it  is  easy  to  ascertain  the 
impressions  and  experience  of  those 
of  our  predecessors  who  have  at- 
tempted to  grapple  with  the  prob- 
lem within  the  period  referred  to. 
It  seems  to  be  frequently  if  not 
generally  assumed  that  only  of 
late  years  has  any  considerable 
portion  of  our  immigration  been  a 
positive  injury  or  even  a  doubtful 
benefit  to  the  country.  Unfortu- 
nately facts  and  figures  disclose 
too  plainly  the  fallacy  of  such  an 
assumption.  A  few  brief  extracts 
from  the  first  report  on  the  sub- 
ject will  serve  to  disclose  the  con- 
dition that  prevailed  more  than 


58        IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

fifty  years  ago,  and  this  report 
may  be  taken  as  a  type  of  its  class. 
It  bears,  in  fact,  a  strong  resem- 
blance to  those  of  a  subsequent 
date,  so  that  only  brief  portions  of 
the  latter  need  be  quoted. 

On  July  2,  1838,  there  was  sub- 
mitted to  the  House  the  result  of 
the  researches  of  a  select  com- 
mittee of  that  body,  prefaced  by 
the  following  remarks:  "To  en- 
able the  committee  to  obtain  all 
the  information  which  was  acces- 
sible the  following  interrogatories 
(among  others)  were  propounded 
to  the  mayors  of  the  respective 
cities  of  New  York,  Boston,  Phila- 
delphia, Charleston,  and  New  Or- 
leans :  .  .  .  What  proportion  of 
the  immigrants  bring  with  them 
the  means  of  subsisting  themselves 
and  families  ?  What  proportion 
are  paupers  ?  What  proportion  of 
the  inmates  of  poorhouses  and 
penitentiaries  are  natives  ? 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.        59 

From  the  replies  to  these  and 
similar  questions  the  committee 
state:  "It  is  estimated  that  more 
than  one-half  the  pauper  popu- 
lation, and  that  the  most  helpless 
and  dependent,  are  foreign."  The 
proportion  of  foreign  to  native 
population  in  the  whole  country  at 
that  time  was  less  than  five  per 
cent,  but  of  course  this  estimate 
does  not  apply  to  the  urban  popu- 
lation, where,  then  as  now,  the 
foreign  element  predominated, 
comprising,  however,  not  more  than 
fifteen  per  cent  of  the  inhabit- 
ants. uln  1838  there  were  in  the 
almshouse  at  Philadelphia  1505 
Americans  and  1266  foreigners  ;  in 
that  at  Boston  596  Americans  and 
673  foreigners.  On  the  twelfth  of 
June,  1837,  there  were  in  the 
almshouse  in  the  city  of  New  York 
3074,  of  which  number  three- 
fourths  .were  foreigners,  and  of 
1200  admitted  at  Bellevue  983  were 


60       IMMIGRATION  FALLACIES. 

aliens;"  while  in  1838,  "by  the 
report  of  the  resident  physician,  it 
appears  that  of  1209  admitted  to 
his  department,  only  206  were  born 
in  America.  In  the  year  ending  in 
August,  1836,  there  were  received 
into  the  Boston  house  of  refuge 
866  paupers,  516  of  whom  were 
foreign.  ...  At  a  recent  date  it 
appears  that  the  number  of  con- 
victs confined  at  Sing  Sing,  New 
York,  was  800,  of  whom  603  were 
foreigners."  A  prominent  of- 
ficial of  New  York,  who  was  des- 
ignated by  the  mayor  to  make  a 
report  to  the  commissioners,  stated 
that  of  the  entire  number  entering 
the  port  of  New  York  for  the  first 
part  of  1838,  two-thirds  "were 
without  any  occupation  or  even  the 
pretense  of  one." 

During  the  first  three  quarters 
of  1838  no  less  than  38,057  aliens 
"  who  had  no  occupation  "  (a  very 
large  proportion  of  the  whole 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.       61 

number)  "were  cast  upon  the 
citizens  of  New  York."  To  the 
question,  How  is  the  expense  of 
the  transportation  hither  of  such 
as  are  poor  defrayed  ?  the  answer 
is,  "It  is  impossible  for  us  to 
ascertain  what  number  are  actually 
forced  or  hired  to  leave  their  own 
country,  but  the  superintendent 
states  to  me  that  he  has  seen  one 
of  the  passenger  ships  filled  with 
paupers  alone.  When  entire  car- 
goes have  come  out  it  has  been 
ascertained  that  the  parishes  have 
paid  their  expenses.  An  English 
gentleman  recently  stated  that  he 
had  seen  the  poor  marched  down 
in  droves  from  the  poorhouses  to 
the  ships.  It  is  stated  on  authority 
that  the  passages  of  more  than 
30,000  persons  have  been  paid  in 
England,  Ireland,  and  Scotland,  to 
enable  them  to  leave  there  for 
America." 
From  the  foregoing  citations  one 


62        IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

is  driven  to  infer  that  at  the  period 
of  the  first  inquiry  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  immigration  was  of 
a  highly  undesirable  class,  and 
that  the  general  prospect  was  far 
from  pleasing.  But  despite  the 
agitation  which  followed  and  the 
attempts  that  were  made  to  im- 
prove matters,  the  lapse  of  a  very 
few  years  found  similar  conditions 
prevailing.  During  the  session  of 
the  twenty-eighth  Congress  a  reso- 
lution was  introduced  in  the  Senate 
directing  the  Judiciary  Committee 
to  inquire  into  the  expediency  of 
immediately  modifying  the  nat- 
uralization laws  to  prevent  the 
recurrence  of  the  gross  and  ex- 
tensive frauds  upon  the  ballot-box 
that  had  recently  been  perpetrated, 
and  to  prohibit  the  further  intro- 
duction of  paupers  and  convicts 
into  the  United  States.  Some  of 
the  speeches  made  on  this  occasion 
indicate  the  unmistakable  need  of 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.        63 

the  proposed  action.  This  took 
place  in  1845.  In  the  following 
year  resolutions  of  a  similar  pur- 
port passed  by  the  Massachusetts 
legislature  were  introduced  in  the 
House  by  Hon.  Robert  C.  Win- 
throp,  which  led  to  a  protracted 
and  at  times  heated  debate. 

Some  ten  years  later  the  discus- 
sion was  reopened,  and  while  dif- 
ferences of  opinion  were  manifest 
as  to  the  proposed  methods  of 
securing  relief,  the  existing  abuses 
were  freely  admitted  and  a  volu- 
minous report  was  submitted  on 
the  evils  of  foreign  immigration, 
and  recommending  changes  in  the 
naturalization  laws.  Once  more, 
in  1869  and  1870,  the  question 
came  up,  and  Senators  Davis,  ^ 
Frelinghuysen,  Bayard,  Thurman, 
and  others  took  part  in  the  ensu- 
ing debate.  Finally  we  had  the 
investigation  of  1888-9.  Its  rev- 
elations are  too  fresh  in  the 


64       IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

public  mind  to  need  more  than 
a  passing  allusion.  But  anyone 
who  may  feel  disposed  to  refresh 
his  recollection  or  comprehend  the 
serious  nature  of  the  present  out- 
look will  find  interesting  infor- 
mation in  the  report  furnished  by 
his  Eepresentative  to  Congress  on 
the  importation  of  contract  labor. 
As  has  been  already  intimated, 
the  most  casual  acquaintance  with 
the  records  suffices  to  disabuse 
the  mind  of  an  impression  that 
only  recent  immigration  has  been 
deleterious  in  its  nature.  The 
statistics  to  the  contrary  are  too 
clear  and  circumstantial.  For  a 
long  time  past  very  many  of  the 
immigrants  to  this  land  have  been 
unwelcome,  unwholesome,  unde- 
sirable additions  to  its  population. 
Serious  and  disturbing,  however, 
as  such  a  conviction  must  be,  there 
is  another  consideration  involved 
of  vastly  greater  consequence  and 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.        66 

importance.  A  noticeable  monot- 
ony pervades  the  history  of  im- 
migration. The  earliest  and  latest 
reports  evince  a  strong,  one  might 
say  an  ominous  similarity.  In 
1838  we  had  paupers  and  ' '  assisted  " 
immigrants  ;  more  recently  it  has 
been  paupers  and  "  contract 
laborers  " — a  choice  of  evils  truly  ! 
The  real  significance  of  a  com- 
parison, therefore,  and  the  real 
gravity  of  the  problem  consist  in 
the  fact  that  the  situation  has  con- 
tinued virtually  unchanged,  so  far, 
at  least,  as  any  efforts  on  our  part 
are  concerned.  And  whatever 
changes  have  occurred  In  the  char- 
acter and  volume  of  immigration 
from  time  to  time  have  been  for 
the  worse  and  not  for  the  better. 
A  steady  increase  in  quantity  has 
attended  a  perceptible  deterioration 
in  quality.  The  committee  of  18*38 
were  justified  in  stating  that  their 
report  "presented  a  combination  of 


66        IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

facts  that  cannot  fail  to  arrest  the 
attention  of  the  American  people 
and  to  establish  the  necessity  of 
immediate  legislative  action." 
"  Legislative  action"  was  taken 
repeatedly  then  and  at  subsequent 
times.  But  so  partial  and  tem- 
porary has  been  the  relief  afforded 
that  the  committee  of  1888-9  found 
the  condition  of  affairs  to  be  about 
the  worst  in  our  history. 

What  has  been  accomplished 
since  that  report  ?  Measures 
designed  to  afford  some  relief  were 
passed  by  Congress  during  the 
session  of  1891,  although  with- 
out adequate  appropriations  to  en- 
force them,  and  various  individuals 
have  been  debarred  from  landing. 
But  by  this  time  we  are  well  aware 
that  the  undesirable  classes  are  not 
numbered  by  units  or  tens,  but 
by  hundreds  and  by  thousands. 
Will  further  legislation  reach  the 
latter?  No  question  can  have  a 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.       67 

more  direct  and  immediate  bearing 
on  American  civilization. 

The  law  lately   passed   (March, 
1893)  is  open  to  very  serious  objec- 
tions.     Some     of    its    provisions 
have  been  tried  and  found  want- 
ing.    When  the  bill  in  its  present 
form  came  up  for  passage  in  the 
House  all  the  remarks  made,  with 
but   a  single  exception,  indicated 
lack  of  confidence  in  the  proposed 
remedy.      One  speaker   lamented 
that  the  bill  went  so  short  a  dis- 
tance in  the  direction  it  professed 
to   go.     Another    member,     thor- 
oughly familiar  with  the  subject, 
said,  in  summing  up  the  defects  of 
the  bill,    that   it   was   not   worth 
passing.     But  even  were  adequate 
laws  passed,  the  question  of  vital 
import  to  the  country  is,  whether 
such  laws  will  be    enforced    and 
made  effective.*    Many  stringent 

*  Some  of  the  bills  before  the  present  Con- 
gress (1896)  are  much  in  advance  of  those  of 


68       IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

regulations  appear  in  the  annals  of 
immigration,  but  no  radical  or 
permanent  reform  has  ever  been 
effected.  Agitation,  legislation, 
superficial  and  temporary  improve- 
ment, recurrence  of  the  evil  when 
public  attention  is  diverted,  about 
describe  the  situation. 

Perhaps  the  exclusion  of  the 
Chinese  may  be  instanced  as  one 
exception  in  the  long  list  of  fail- 
ures to  regulate  immigration. 
Chinese  exclusion  is  somewhat  of 
a  misnomer,  as  the  constant  ar- 
rivals from  Mexico  and  British 
Columbia  plainly  bear  witness. 
That  the  entrance  of  the  Chinese 
has  been  greatly  checked,  how- 
ever, may  freely  be  conceded.  Ee- 
strictive  laws  were  framed  at  last 
that  seem  to  have  met  the  test  of 
constitutionality.  But  it  required 

the  last  one.  But  whether  they  will  become 
laws  and  whether  they  be  rigidly  enforced 
is  another  question. 


IMMIGRATION   FALLAClESo       69 

(1)  a  struggle  of  years  on  the 
part  of  a  whole  section  of  the 
country  that  was  (2)  practically  a 
unit  on  the  Chinese  question. 
And  then  (3)  the  Chinamen  had 
no  vote. 

No  treatment  of  the  subject 
would  be  complete  without  at  least 
a  passing  reference  to  the  publish- 
ed report  of  the  special  Treasury 
commissioners  who  were  detailed 
to  investigate  abroad  the  mysteri- 
ous influences  that  underlie  the 
present  criminal  and  pauper  im- 
migration from  Europe.  The 
same  papers  that  published  some 
time  ago  outlines  of  this  report 
contained  also  accounts  of  the 
united  efforts  of  press  and  pulpit 
in  New  York  City  to  reform  and 
purify  the  social  and  political 
atmosphere.  Much  stress  is  laid 
in  the  commissioners'  report 
upon  the  organized  system  and 
combination  to  transport  beg- 


70       IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

gars,  criminals,  and  imbeciles  to 
this  country,  in  which  foreign 
officials  are  largely  implicated. 
This,  however,  is  no  new  thing. 
The  "friendly "  governments  of  ' 
Europe  have  engaged  for  years  in 
this  work,  and  are  responsible  in 
no  small  degree  for  the  social  con- 
dition of  our  large  cities,  although 
when  these  social  conditions  pre- 
cipitate an  outbreak  like  that 
at  New  Orleans,  the  same  gov- 
ernments manifest  much  surprise 
as  well  as  horror  at  the  occur- 
rence. 

This  commissioners'  report  does 
not  contain  any  especially  novel 
features,  though  it  indicates  the 
persistence  and  deep-rooted  nature 
of  the  evil.  It  is  referred  to  here 
because  in  the  columns  of  the  press 
it  stood  in  such  striking  antithesis, 
to  the  accounts  of  the  union  of 
press  and  pulpit  to  promote  muni 
cipal  reform.  In  an  article  pub- 


IMMIGRATION  FALLACIES.        71 

lished  three  or  four  years  *  ago 
the  writer  endeavored  to  show 
that  many  of  the  greatest  indus- 
trial and  social  problems  of  our 
generation — intemperance,  Mor- 
monism,  etc. — are  traceable  large- 
ly, in  some  cases  almost  entirely, 
to  unrestricted  immigration.  The 
past  and  present  character  of  that 
immigration,  revealed  in  the  of- 
ficial record  and  in  this  latest  re- 
port, shows  too  plainly  why  its 
influence  on  intemperance,  polyg- 
afriy,  the  relations  of  capital  and 
labor,  has  been  so  profound  and  so 
pernicious,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
more  obvious  effects  upon  pauper- 
ism, insanit}^  and  crime. 

And  the  injury  will  continue 
and  increase  until  the  character  of 
our  immigration  is  radically 
changed.  The  municipal  reform 
of  our  large  cities,  in  particular, 

*  The  article  is  reprinted  as  chapter  I  of 
the  present  work. 


72       IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

recently  advocated  so  earnestly, 
cannot  make  much  headway  while 
thousands  of  criminals,  paupers, 
and  contract  or  unskilled  laborers 
continue  to  pour  in.  As  was  sug- 
gested in  the  former  article  re- 
ferred to,  the  undertaking  of  vari- 
ous proposed  municipal  reforms, 
without  reckoning  with  the  chief 
cause  of  the  trouble,  resembles  an 
attempt  to  cleanse  the  stables  of 
Augeas,  with  the  difference,  it 
may  be  added,  that  while  the 
stables  were  cleaned  by  turning  on 
the  stream,  our  cities  may  be 
cleaned  when  it  is  turned  off. 

Is  it  practicable  to  regulate  im- 
migration, and  if  so,  why  have  we 
thus  far  failed  ? 


IMMIGRATION  FALLACIES.       73 


CHAPTER  III. 

IMMIGRATION  AND  THE  RISE  OF  THE 
A.  P.  A.* 

THE  late  Matthew  Arnold,  cer- 
tainly no  partial  critic,  was  once 
pleased  to  say,  that  in  political 
affairs,  as  a  rule,  we  Americans 
possessed  the  faculty  of  "  thinking 
clear  and  seeing  straight."  If 
there  has  been  any  exception  to 
this  rule — from  the  tendency  of  a 
certain  school  of  thought  to  obliq- 
uity of  mental  vision — the  subject 
of  this  paper  will  suggest  the  ex- 
ception. 

*  This  chapter  might  also  be  entitled 
"  Why  we  Fail  to  Regulate  Immigration," 
in  answer  to  the  question  of  last  chapter  : 
"  Why  have  we  thus  far  failed  ?  " 


fom 


Of  TH 

•  I7BR 
^ 


74       IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

Not  that  the  question  of  im- 
migration, broadly  considered,  is 
necessarily  intricate.  In  complex- 
ity it  does  not  compare  with  the 
tariff,  nor,  in  perplexity,  to  the 
average  male  mind,  with  the 
"  woman  question  "  and  the  atti- 
tude of  some  of  its  exponents. 
But  much  has  been  said  and  writ- 
ten having  a  direct  tendency  to 
confuse  the  real  issue.  Of  this 
tendency  recent  discussion  affords 
abundant  illustration. 

Those  vague  abstractions,  for 
example,  which  refer  to  America 
as  the  " refuge  of  the  nations," 
"the  asylum  of  the  oppressed," 
etc.,  enjoy  a  charmed  life.  It 
seems  vain  to  point  out  that  such 
venerable  maxims  apply  to  condi- 
tions that  have  wholly  passed 
away.  To  invoke  them  now  is  to 
try  to  transform  a  question  of 
statesmanship  into  one  of  senti- 
ment. But  even  on  sentimental 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.        75 

grounds  they  are  singularly  un- 
suited  to  present  conditions.  When 
earnest  and  sincere  philanthropists 
urge  the  claims  of  the  immigrant 
to  hospitality  and  charity,  they  do 
so  oftentimes  at  the  expense  of 
those  having  prior  and  much 
stronger  claims — that  is,  if  charity 
is  to  begin  at  home.  They  plead, 
these  philanthropists,  that  immi- 
gration is  a  law  of  nature,  not 
pausing  to  reflect  that  self-preser- 
vation is  the  first  of  nature's  laws. 
The  persistent  treatment  of  im- 
migration as  simply  or  chiefly  an 
economic  factor  in  our  civilization, 
is  likewise  to  be  noted.  It  is  only 
now  coming  to  be  recognized  as 
primarily  a  political  and  social 
question  having  intimate  relations 
not  only  with  pauperism,  anarchy, 
crime,  etc.,  but  with  Mormonism, 
the  social  evil,  intemperance,  labor 
agitation,  municipal  evils,  ecclesi- 
astical misconceptions,  etc.,  etc. 


76        IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

Perhaps  we  may  ultimately  come 
to  feel  that  immigration  is  the 
problem  of  problems,  concerning 
nearly  all  of  these  other  questions 
generally,  many  closely,  not  a  few 
vitally. 

Attention  has  also  been  drawn 
recently  to  the  fact  that  no  per- 
manent reform  of  immigration  is 
on  record,  a  fact  which  indicates 
that  its  practical  difficulty  has 
been  and  still  is  greatly  underesti- 
mated and  that  the  teachings  of 
history  have  been  forgotten.  Ex- 
tracts from  the  official  records  re- 
cently cited  *  show  how  attempted 
reforms  have  failed,  and  how  in 
spite  of  them  all  a  constant  in- 
crease in  the  quantity  of  immigra- 
tion has  kept  pace  with  a  constant 
decrease  in  the  quality. 

*  In  an  article  entitled,  "  Is  it  Practicable 
to  Regulate  Immigration  ?  "  in  the  Overland 
Monthly  for  February,  1894.  See  Chapter 
II,  ante,  p.  46. 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.         77 

For  years  of  effort  to  regulate 
immigration  to  end  in  virtual  fail- 
ure is  a  very  serious  fact.  The 
fact  is  here  referred  to,  however, 
not  because  of  its  gravity,  but 
because  this  failure,  or  rather 
series  of  failures,  naturally  sug- 
gests the  question,  whether  regu- 
lation is  possible  by  any  ordinary 
methods,  or  by  methods  that  have 
hitherto  proved  so  inadequate,  and 
whether,  in  assuming  the  contrary, 
there  is  no  liability  of  further 
error.  What  gives  so  much  inter- 
est to  the  question  at  this  juncture 
is  the  rise  and  sudden  growth  of 
that  singular  order,  which  is  at- 
tracting attention  on  all  sides  and 
evoking  such  varied  comment,  the 
American  Protective  Association. 

This  Association  may  or  may 
not  have  an  answer  to  the  inquiry, 
whether  regulation  is  possible  by 
ordinary  methods,  and  on  this 
point  the  writer,  not  being  a  mem- 


78        IMMIGRATION    FALLACIES. 

ber  of  the  order,  cannot  speak  with 
certainty.  But  it  is  fair  to  pre- 
sume that  it  has  a  negative  an- 
swer, that  its  very  existence  is  an 
assumption  that  ordinary  meas- 
ures will  not  suffice,  and  that  ex- 
traordinary ones  are  essential. 
Whether  all  the  objects  of  this 
and  similar  associations  are  com- 
mendable, all  their  methods  legit- 
imate, is  nothing  to  the  present 
purpose.  The  special  significance 
of  the  movement  consists  in  the 
evident  belief  of  a  large  number  of 
people  that  real  reform  is  impossi- 
ble under  existing  conditions  with- 
out some  form  of  organization. 
Let  us  see  if  this  belief  is  not  well 
founded. 

The  conditions  which  have 
thwarted  all  previous  efforts  to 
stem  the  tide  of  immigration,  or 
to  control  it,  seem  to  be  partly 
politicial,  partly  social.  It  is  of 
course  impossible  to  enlarge  upon 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.        79 

them  or  treat  them  separately.  To 
do  so  would  involve  considering, 
among  other  things,  our  extraor- 
dinary naturalization  laws  and 
their  influence  on  immigration. 
But,  roughly  speaking,  the  effects 
of  both  political  and  social  con- 
ditions are  readily  traceable,  work- 
ing together  among  the  various 
forces  arrayed  for  or  against  re- 
form. The  strength  of  the  opposi- 
tion is  better  appreciated  if  the 
numerical  superiority  of  the  re- 
formers is  taken  into  account.  On 
the  side  of  reform  is  doubtless 
ranged  a  large  majority  of  the 
American  people,  who  favor  a 
change,  and  their  sentiment  is 
growing  more  and  more  out- 
spoken. 

For  it  is  becoming  keenly  felt 
that  the  pressure  of  population 
into  our  chief  cities,  so  largely  due 
to  immigration,  is  driving  masses 
of  people  into  the  most  abject 


80        IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

poverty,  the  borderland  of  beggary 
and  crime.  In  many  sections  East 
and  West  a  blight  has  fallen  on 
the  mining  regions,  lower  and 
lower  strata  of  humanity  taking 
the  places  of  higher  ones,  a  signal 
instance  of  the  survival  of  the  un- 
fittest,  according  to  our  notions  of 
government  and  social  welfare. 
And  some  of  the  mining  riots  and 
outbreaks  of  the  past  three  years 
in  various  parts  of  the  land  have 
brought  to  the  surface  wondrous 
types  of  savagery. 

All  this  is  felt  to  be  wholly 
wrong.  It  runs  directly  counter 
to  the  instincts  of  the  race — those 
practical  instincts  which  so  im- 
pressed Matthew  Arnold.  In  im- 
porting horses,  cattle,  and  even 
poultry,  we  legislate  to  some  effect, 
sparing  no  pains  to  strengthen  and 
improve  the  native  breeds.  Why 
should  we  deal  so  differently  with 
the  breed  oil  which  the  future 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.        81 

hangs  ?      Why    weaken    or    con- 
taminate the  breed  of  men  ? 

Discontent  with  the  existing 
order  of  things  is  by  no  means 
confined  to  the  members  of  the  A. 
P.  A.*  But  unhappily  the  general 

*  The  platform  of  the  Republican  party  in 
California,  adopted  at  Sacramento,  June  20, 
1894,  contains  these  provisions  among  its 
planks  :  ' '  The  public  schools  should  be  non- 
sectarian  in  their  character  and  conduct. 
We  are  opposed  to  any  division  of  the  school 
money  for  any  purpose  or  to  any  sect." 
"  We  are  in  favor  of  amending  our  natural- 
ization laws  so  that  no  one  can  become  a 
citizen  who  is  not  of  good  repute,"  etc.  *  *  We 
recognize  that  the  present  naturalization 
laws  are  weak  in  their  provisions  and  de- 
fective in  their  administration,  and  should 
be  changed  by  appropriate  legislation  so  as 
to  place  additional  and  better  safeguards 
around  American  citizenship.  We  believe 
the  time  has  come  when  the  nation  must 
take  a  firm  and  decided  stand  against  the 
incursion  of  the  underpaid  and  ignorant 
laborers  of  the  old  world  that  are  flocking 
here  now  in  such  numbers  as  to  drive  the 
American  laborer  from  his  work,  with  the 
increasing  result,  as  seen  at  the  present 
6 


o^       IMMIGRATION    FALLACIES. 

sentiment  in  favor  of  a  change  is 
or  has  been  unorganized;  and 
furthermore,  the  majority  of  the 
reform  element  have  no  direct  per- 
sonal or  pecuniary  interest  at  stake. 
On  the  contrary,  the  corporations, 
syndicates,  trusts,  and  other  forces 
working  against  reform  are  in 
many  cases  organized,  and  have 
pecuniary  interests  of  great  mag- 
nitude at  stake.  The  great  lines 
of  transportation,  both  to  and 
through  this  country,  are  totally 
indifferent  to  the  quality  of 
their  human  freight.  With  them 
it  is  solely  a  question  of  quantity,  so 
long  as  they  keep  within  the  letter 
of  the  law  and  do  not  have  to  sup- 
port or  deport  their  passengers. 

time,  of  causing  disturbances  in  the  man- 
ufacturing centres  of  the  country,  reducing 
the  price  of  labor,"  etc.  "  We  demand  the 
enactment  and  strict  enforcement  of  such 
laws  as  will  absolutely  and  effectually  pro- 
hibit the  immigration  of  all  labor,  both 
skilled  and  unskilled. 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.        & 

As  to  the  multitude  of  steamship 
orimmigrationsociety  agents  whom 
a  recent  Congressional  committee 
unearthed  in  Europe,  these  gentry 
actually  prefer  a  poor  quality  of 
immigration.  For,  of  course,  the 
lower  the  object  of  their  solicita- 
tion is  in  the  scale  of  intelligence, 
the  easier  it  is  to  hoodwink  and 
cozen  him,  or  at  least  inveigle  him 
into  buying  a  ticket.  The  pressure 
of  the  times  just  now  interferes 
with  this  business,  but  if  past  ex- 
perience be  a  guide,  we  may  expect 
other  committees  to  find  the  agents 
at  work  again,  industriously  plying 
their  avocation  in  every  quarter  of 
Europe. 

In  the  same  class  with  the  agents 
are  the  "padrones"  and  bosses  of 
the  large  cities.  A  self-respect- 
ing, intelligent,  or  independent 
immigrant  is  just  the  man  they 
do  not  want.  Anything  that  will 
pass  for  a  man  and  be  speedily 


84 


IMMIGRATION    FALLACIES. 


convertible  into  a  voter  is  much  to 
be  preferred.  From  his  helpless- 
ness tribute  is  easily  levied,  and 
once  a  voter  he  becomes  part  of 
the  foreign  machine  vote,  raising 
his  master,  the  padrone,  to  a  full- 
fledged  boss. 

The  character  and  strength  of 
the  opposition  to  a  change  of  the 
present  system  is  not,  cannot  be, 
realized  by  the  people.  If  it  were, 
there  would  be  fewer  suggestions 
of  reform  based  on  legislation 
alone.  We  know  something  of 
the  difficulty  of  effecting  any  re- 
form, even  when  it  is  demanded 
by  public  opinion  and  a  dominant 
political  party  as  well,  when  pitted 
against  great  aggregations  of 
wealth.  Many  a  reform  has  been 
worsted  in  the  encounter.  Eecent 
congressional  proceedings  furnish 
at  least  one  striking  illustration.* 

*  When  these   words  were    written  the 
failure  of  Congress  to  enact  radical  tariff 


IMMIGRATION    FALLACIES.        85 

How  then  can  we  expect  that  im- 
migration reform,  favored  by  pub- 
lic opinion  only,  will  achieve  any 
great  or  lasting  victory  in  the 
halls  of  national  legislation  ?  Only 
one  side  of  the  question  will  be 
ably  presented  to  Congress,  the 
side  of  the  transportation  and  man- 
ufacturing companies  that  wish 
unlimited  immigration  or  cheap 
labor — the  side  also  of  the  agent, 
the  padrone,  and  the  municipal 
boss,  whose  machine,  were  immi- 
gration to  cease  for  a  time,  would 
surely  become  unmanageable. 

When  occasion  calls,  represent- 
atives of  these  interests  appear 
before  congressional  committees, 
as  they  have  a  constitutional  right 
to  do.  They  seize  the  opportunity 

reform,  though  elected  for  that  express 
purpose,  had  just  occurred.  Public  sen- 
timent seems  to  have  since  changed,  but  it 
was  none  the  less  disobeyed  by  the  last  Con- 
gress. 


86        IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

to  point  out  through  the  ablest 
agents  and  counsel  the  defects  of 
this  proposed  measure,  the  hard- 
ships of  that  ;  and  they  descant 
on  the  great  exaggeration  of  immi- 
gration abuses.*  But  who  is  at 
hand  to  speak  for  the  people  at 
large,  or  to  plead  the  grave  eco- 
nomic, political,  social,  moral,  and 
patriotic  objections  to  the  present 
system  ? 

For  this  question  is  pre-eminently 
patriotic,  and  it  affects  the  whole 
nation.  It  is  sometimes  assumed 
that  a  republic  is  better  fitted  to 

*  And  the  difficulty  of  enforcing  stringent 
laws  seem  even  greater  than  the  difficulty 
of  passing  them.  In  every  Congressional 
debate  allusion  is  made  to  the  laws  which 
remain  dead  letters.  And  every  investiga- 
tion, like  that  of  the  Knights  of  Labor  two 
or  three  years  ago,  points  to  the  same  con- 
clusion. On  every  ship  and  at  every  port 
there  are  many  whose  pecuniary  interests 
are  to  evade  restrictions  and  smooth  the 
landing  of  the  unfit,  and  none  at  hand 
whose  interests  are  to  oppose  them. 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.        87 

absorb  and  assimilate  heteroge- 
neous elements  of  population  than 
a  monarchy  or  an  empire.  But 
the  important  point  is  not  so  much 
what  can  be  absorbed,  as  what  the 
result  of  the  absorption  will  be. 
In  the  long  run  a  republic  is  more 
nearly  affected  by  the  character  of 
its  population  than  any  other  form 
of  government,  for  the  reason  that 
it  is  or  aims  to  be  a  government 
of  and  by,  as  well  as  for,  the  people. 
Consequently  its  character  depends 
as  much  on  the  character  of  the 
people  as  the  character  of  the 
people  can  possibly  depend  on  a 
republican  form  of  government. 
To  few  if  any  other  nations  can  it 
be  so  important  to  have  the  right 
material  for  citizenship  as  it  is  to 
the  United  States.  And  every 
immigrant  steamer  landing  at  our 
docks  to-day,  as  for  years  past, 
tends  to  lower  our  standards  of 
intelligence,  industry,  and  moral- 


88       IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

ity.  To  hold  otherwise,  in  view  of 
the  character  of  immigration  as  dis- 
closed by  the  records,  would  not  be 
flattering  to  self-esteem. 

In  view  of  the  moral  principle 
underlying  the  whole  matter,  the 
mill-owner  of  New  England,  the 
manufacturer  of  Pennsylvania,  or 
the  mine-owner  of  the  West  who 
will  not  scruple  to  import  a  swarm 
of  ignorant,  degraded,  and  perhaps 
utterly  vicious  human  beings  into 
any  community  can  be  no  real 
lover  of  his  race  or  country. 
Pauper,  contract,  coolie,  low-grade, 
or  even  indiscriminate  immigration 
ought  to  have  no  place  on  our  soil  ; 
certainly  no  American  should  aid, 
abet,  or  connive  at  it.  It  is  a  con- 
test of  mammonism  against  phi- 
lanthropy and  patriotism,  analo- 
gous in  that  respect  to  the  slavery 
issue  as  viewed  from  the  Northern 
standpoint.  Whoever  imports 
labor  to  pauperize  or  supplant  his 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.       89 

own  countrymen  by  birth  or  adop- 
tion, or  who  brings  an  element  into 
any  community  without  regard  to 
its  grade  of  intelligence  and  civil- 
ization, does  the  greatest  wrong, 
not  merely  to  the  community  im- 
mediately concerned,  but  to  the 
whole  people. 

Nor  is  there  any  undoing  of  the 
mischief.  When  defective  armor 
is  placed  on  a  vessel  built  for  na- 
tional defense  and  honor,  it  can 
be  removed  on  detection.  That 
great  wrong  is  at  least  remediable. 
But  the  dangerous  classes  can 
never  be  removed.  They  must 
stay  and  spread  and  multiply  in 
the  country  of  their  adoption. 

So  far  as  the  American  Protec- 
tive Association  is  concerned,  it 
must  in  justice  be  credited  with 
standing  for  rigid  laws  of  im- 
migration and  a  strict  enforcement 
of  them,  and  this  applies  to  other 
kindred  or  somewhat  similar  or 


90        IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

ders.  As  much  may  not  be  said 
of  any  of  the  great  political  parties. 
They  cannot  "  point  with  pride" 
to  their  immigration  records.  And 
it  is  safe  to  say  that,  left  to  them- 
selves, they  never  will  be  able  to. 
History  negatives  the  hope,  and  so 
do  the  conditions.  Reasoning  in- 
ductively, therefore,  or  deduct- 
ively, we  reach  the  same  conclu- 
sion. Some  compact  organization 
of  sufficient  strength  and  fixity  of 
purpose  to  mould  public  opinion, 
to  shape  legislation,  and  to  help 
enforce  it,  seems  essential. 

But  a  great  many  people  who 
might  accept  this  reasoning  will 
perhaps  be  inclined  to  eye  askance 
these  reform  organizations  on  ac- 
count of  their  alleged  bigotry,  in- 
tolerance, etc.  It  is  urged  that 
the  remedy  is  worse  than  the  dis- 
ease, and  that  the  A.  P.  A.  is 
merely  a  disguised  form  of  Know- 
Nothingism.  Here  we  touch  de- 


IMMIGRATION  FALLACIES.        91 

batable  ground.  This,  in  fact,  is 
a  vital  point  in  the  present  dispute, 
but  so  much  controversy  hinges  on 
it  that  a  passing  reference  might 
not  seem  out  of  place,  even  if  it 
involve  a  slight  digression. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  pertinent 
to  point  out  that  Know-Nothing- 
ism  is  a  very  elastic  term.  It  is 
applied  in  reproach  to  those  whose 
views  on  immigration,  naturaliza- 
tion, etc.,  are  fanatic,  and  whose 
methods  of  enforcing  them  are 
proscriptive.  As  one  result  of  the 
reaction  against  the  extreme  opin- 
ions of  the  old  Know -Nothing 
party,  every  speaker  or  writer  who 
drew  attention  to  abuses  of  natu- 
ralization, immigration,  or  the 
public-school  system  assumed  an 
apologetic  attitude.  He  feared  to 
be  called  a  Know-Nothing.  Recent 
agitation,  however,  has  brought 
about  a  change.  Very  plain  lan- 
guage can  now  be  used  without 


92       IMMIGRATION  FALLACIES. 

opening  the  door  to  this  charge. 
In  this  respect  it  seems  generally 
conceded  that,  however  erroneous 
the  views  of  the  last  generation, 
the  men  of  this  one  have  some- 
what similar  and  by  no  means  un- 
founded grounds  for  complaint  and 
apprehension. 

But  even  if  the  American  Pro- 
tective Association  is  in  effect  a 
revival  of  Know-Nothingism  in  the 
old  form,  such  repeating  of  history 
cannot  be  causeless.  These  peri- 
odic outbreaks  of  Americanism  or 
Know-Nothingism,  as  they  may  be 
differently  regarded,  must  have 
some  reason  for  being. 

In  view  of  the  number  and  char- 
acter of  their  sympathizers,  how- 
ever, they  would  be  unaccount- 
able, had  the  great  questions  that 
underlie  them  ever  received  firm 
and  judicious  treatment.  Would 
there  be  no  plausibility  in  a  claim 
in  behalf  of  the  American  Protect- 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.        93 

ive  Association  that  its  existence 
to-day  is  due  solely  to  the  super- 
ficial treatment  accorded  immigra- 
tion and  kindred  evils  during  the 
last  thirty  years,  to  the  fallacies, 
some  of  them  herein  referred  to, 
that  have  obscured  the  issue,  and 
to  the  efforts  in  various  quarters 
to  make  light  of  the  in  jury  and  the 
peril  to  the  country  ?  These  ques- 
tions certainly  are  pertinent,  if  in 
the  heat  of  controversy  they  can  be 
asked  and  anwered  in  the  right 
spirit. 

Of  course  it  is  perfectly  clear  that 
any  excesses,  whether  caused  or 
induced  by  existing  societies,  will 
provoke  the  inevitable  reaction. 
That  should  go  without  saying. 
But  if  this  reaction  comes,  and 
involves  a  return  to  another  long 
term  of  inaction  or  half-hearted 
measures,  it  might  well  be  asked 
whether  in  the  end  the  country 
will  not  suffer  more  than  the  de- 


94        IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

feated  reformers.  The  old  Know- 
Nothing  movement  was  indeed  a 
failure,  but  has  it  been  a  more 
conspicuous  failure  than  our  sub- 
sequent policy  of  immigration  ? 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.        95 


CHAPTER   IV. 

OUR    UNNATURAL    LAWS    OF     NATU- 
RALIZATION. 

SOME  years  ago  a  flagrant  eva- 
sion of  the  law  forbidding  importa- 
tion of  contract  labor  was  drawn 
to  the  writer's  attention.  That 
law  had  been  in  force  for  several 
years,  and  the  press  was  daily  ex- 
posing the  abuses  of  immigration. 
It  was  at  the  height  of  this  agita- 
tion that  a  Northwestern  railway 
happened  to  need  additional  labor 
to  extend  the  lines  of  its  system. 
The  manager  of  a  line  of  European 
steamers  was  interviewed  in  the 
interest  of  the  road,  and  a  proposal 
was  made  for  the  transport  of  for- 
eign workmen  under  contract. 
The  rates  asked,  however,  were  a 


96        IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

little  too  high,  being,  it  is,  said, 
eight  dollars  per  head.  But  the 
rate  was  afterwards  adjusted  with 
a  rival  line,  and  fourteen  thousand 
peasants  of  sunny  Italy  were  ship- 
ped to  the  Western  prairies. 

In  the  third  year  after  this  coup, 
the  important  fall  elections  of  1890 
were  held.  Returns  from  Montana 
were  delayed.  So  closely  divided 
between  the  two  old  parties  did  the 
United  States  Senate  appear,  that 
Montana  was  thought  to  hold  the 
balance  of  power,  and  the  result  of 
her  vote  was  awaited  with  the 
gravest  interest.  After  quite  an 
interval  the  expectant  country 
learned  the  cause  of  the  delay. 
The  vote  of  the  state  depended  on 
the  result  in  certain  precincts 
of  Silver  Bow  district.  In  that  lo- 
cality, according  to  the  dispatches, 
not  one  of  the  voters  could  read 
or  write,  and  wholesale  fraud  had 
reigned — though  under  the  cir- 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.        97 

cumstances  this  latter  piece  of  in- 
formation might  be  deemed  some- 
what gratuitous. 

The  foregoing  incident  made 
such  a  stir  at  the  time  as  to  merit 
fuller  details  than  those  supplied 
by  the  Associated  Press.  It  would 
have  been  gratifying  to  know  some 
things  about  those  illiterate  voters, 
their  nationality,  for  instance,  and 
how  long  they  had  been  domiciled 
among  us.  Were  they  of  the  four- 
teen thousand  Italians  landed  in 
1888,  and,  in  1890,  shaping  the 
destiny  of  the  republic  ;  socially, 
serfs  in  all  but  the  name  ;  politi- 
cally, American  sovereigns  ? 

But  whether  they  hailed  from 
Italy,  Hungary,  Slavonia,  or  else- 
where does  not  affect  the  principle 
involved.  Owing  to  the  lax  en- 
forcement of  the  law  in  some  states, 
and  in  many  others  to  the  reckless 
shortening  of  the  time  of  probation, 
bands  of  European  peasantry,  land- 


98       IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

ing  to-day  and  remaining  for  many 
years  as  ignorant  of  our  language 
and  institutions  as  of  the  meaning 
of  self-government,  may  yet  decide 
the  vote  of  a  pivotal  state  in  a  pres- 
idential year  or  determine  the 
political  complexion  of  Congress, 
and  all  this  within  two  or  three 
years  of  their  landing.  The  Mon- 
tana case  is  not  exceptional,  but 
typical  on  account  of  the  volume 
and  character  of  immigration- 
restrained  of  late  by  economic,  not 
legislative  barriers — and  of  the 
unbounded  liberality  with  which 
we  bestow  the  elective  franchise. 

So  far  as  immigration  is  con- 
cerned, and  its  persistent  abuses, 
our  experience  with  contract  labor 
is  a  striking  illustration.  That 
particular  form  of  the  evil  was 
singled  out  as  the  object  of  special 
legislation.  Men  of  all  parties  and 
the  most  opposite  views  have  con- 
demned it.  Yet  what  has  been 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.        99 

accomplished  in  the  way  of  reform  ? 
The  contract  labor  laws  date  from 
1882  and  1885,  yet  as  late  as  the 
summer  of  1894  the  hapless  condi- 
tion of  the  contract  laborer  pro- 
voked a  great  indignation  meeting 
in  Boston.  In  May,  1893,  in  a  re- 
port to  the  Treasury  Department 
on  this  same  class  of  labor,  the 
Immigration  Inspector  made  use 
of  the  following  vigorous  language : 
"  The  padrone  system  is  the  most 
outrageous  and  injurious  to  Ameri- 
can workingmen  of  any  system  that 
ever  was  practised  in  the  United 
States.  And  there  is  no  denying 
the  fact  that  it  exists  in  almost 
every  city  in  this  country  where 
there  is  an  Italian  colony. "  In  this 
report  is  a  description  of  the  way 
in  which  laborers  are  coached  on 
shipboard  and  so  prepared  on  land- 
ing to  baffle  our  inspectors  by 
judicious  perjury.  Just  at  pres- 
ent, it  seems,  the  railroad  contract- 


100    IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

ors  do  not  require  as  close  watch- 
ing as  "  bankers  and  padroiies," 
"  who  between  them  supply  labor- 
ers in  hundreds  to  work  on  our 
railroads  to  the  exclusion  of  Ameri- 
can workmen." 

With  regard  to  the  exclusion  of 
various  other  undesirable  classes, 
the  laws  passed  in  response  to  the 
popular  agitation  of  the  past  eight 
years  have  been  fitly  characterized 
on  the  floors  of  Congress  as  falling 
so  far  short  of  the  mark  as  to  be 
of  very  little  value.  And  this  out- 
come in  the  light  of  history  should 
not  be  surprising.  From  a  recent 
article  reviewing  experimental 
legislation  of  more  than  half  a 
century,  a  chronicle  of  failure  is 
unfolded  by  which  it  appears  that 
despite  all  barriers  the  immigra- 
tion tide  has  steadily  increased  in 
quantity  and  decreased  in  quality/'' 

*  "  Is  it  Practicable  to  Regulate  Im- 
migration ?  "  ending  with  the  question, 


IMMIGRATION  FALLACIES.     101 

As  to  the  naturalizing  process, 
for  an  illustration  only  too  familiar, 
witness  the  scenes  in  our  large  cities 
on  the  eve  of  an  important  election. 
Under  the  stress  of  party  competi- 
tion the  machinery  of  the  courts  is 
quickened  to  the  utmost  extent, 
and  turns  out  new  citizens  by  thou- 
sands after  the  most  perfunctory 
examination.  And  in  the  heat  of 
a  campaign  the  press  often  ap- 
plauds this  menace  to  civilization. 
The  author  of  "The  American 
Commonwealth/''  reputed  a  most 

"  Why  have  we  thus  far  failed  ?  "  Overland 
Monthly,  February,  1894  ;  Chapter  II,  ante. 
Nobody  has  ever  tried  to  answer  this  ques- 
tion, but  is  not  a  prime  cause  of  the  failure 
traceable  to  the  fact,  as  set  forth  in  Chapter 
II,  that  the  general  sentiment  in  favor  of 
reform  is  comparatively  unorganized  and 
has  no  direct  personal  or  pecuniary  interest 
at  stake,  while  the  great  corporations,  syn- 
dicates, trusts,  and  other  forces  arrayed 
against  reform  are  organized,  and  have 
pecuniary  interests  of  great  magnitude  at 
stake  ? 


102     IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

competent    as    well    as    friendly 
authority,  remarks  : 

"The  immigrants  vote  after 
three  or  four  years'  residence  at 
most,  and  often  less,  but  they  are 
not  fit  for  the  suffrage.  They 
know  nothing  of  the  institutions 
of  the  country,  of  its  statesmen,  of 
its  political  issues.  .  .  .  Incompe- 
tent to  give  an  intelligent  vote,  but 
soon  finding  that  their  vote  has  a 
value,  they  fall  into  the  hands  of 
party  organizations  whose  officers 
enroll  them  in  the  lists  and  under- 
take to  fetch  them  to  the  polls.  I 
was  taken  to  watch  the  process  of 
admitting  to  citizenship  in  New 
York.  Droves  of  squalid  men  who 
looked  as  if  they  had  just  emerged 
from  an  emigrant  ship,  and  had  per- 
haps only  done  so  a  few  weeks  be- 
fore, for  the  law  prescribing  a  cer- 
tain term  of  residence  is  frequently 
violated,  were  brought  up  to  the 
magistrate  by  the  ward  agent  of 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.     103 

the  party  which  had  captured 
them,  declared  their  allegiance  to 
the  United  States,  and  were  forth- 
with placed  on  the  roll.  Such  a  sac- 
rifice of  common  sense  to  abstract 
principles  has  seldom  been  made 
by  any  country.  Nobody  pretends 
that  such  persons  are  fit  for  civic 
duty  or  will  be  dangerous  if  kept 
for  a  time  in  pupilage,  but  neither 
party  will  incur  the  odium  of  pro- 
posing to  exclude  them.  "* 

*  A  prominent  senator  of  the  United  States 
is  of  record  in  Congress  as  saying  :  "  Of  two 
portentous  perils  that  threaten  the  safety, 
if  they  do  not  endanger  the  existence  of  the 
republic,  one  is  ignorant,  debased,  degraded 
suffrage,  suffrage  contaminated  by  the 
sewerage  of  foreign  nations."  Within  the 
last  two  years  the  same  statesman  has 
publicly  declared  :  "  Many  of  our  economic 
and  social  difficulties  arise  from  the  presence 
of  undesirable  elements  among  our  people 
that  should  have  been  excluded.  The  bulk 
of  our  anarchists,  socialists,  and  malcon- 
tents," etc.,  "  are  foreigners  who  should 
have  remained  at  home.  And  yet  such  is 


104     IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

What  a  spectacle  these  scenes  in 
New  York,  what  an  object-lesson 
to  the  native-born  voter  attaining 
manhood  !  Why  preach  to  him 
so  constantly  the  duty  of  citizen- 
ship, why  extol  the  dignity  and 
privilege  of  American  suffrage, 
when  he  can  see  in  any  large  city 
that  suffrage  so  unutterably  cheap- 
ened and  degraded,  and  oftentimes 
thrust  upon  the  very  dregs  of 
society  ?  The  contrast  between 
our  theory  and  our  practice  is  en- 
tirely too  glaring. 

But  on  this  topic  far  more  tell- 
ing than  any  personal  opinion  may 
be  the  words  of  the  men  trans- 
formed so  summarily  into  Amer- 

the  pusillanimity  of  our  politics  that,  not- 
withstanding the  admitted  dangers  of  unre- 
stricted immigration,  all  parties  forbear  to 
deal  with  the  question  and  shrink  from  rad- 
ical and  drastic  measures  for  fear  of  the 
foreign  vote.  That  makes  cowards  of  us 
all !  "  If  this  applies  to  immigration,  it  of 
course  holds  equally  good  of  naturalization. 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.     106 

ican  voters.  At  the  time  of  the 
Mafia  tragedy  in  New  Orleans, 
UElvezia,  a  Swiss-Italian  paper 
in  a  large  Western  city,  contained 
the  following  striking  indictment 
of  the  naturalization  laws.  After 
alluding  to  the  general  outcry  of 
Italians  in  this  country  as  perfectly 
natural,  it  is  pointed  out,  as  a  sin- 
gular feature  in  the  case, ' '  that  per- 
sons who  had  voluntarily  adopted 
American  citizenship  have  brought 
themselves  forward  to  ask  the  in- 
tervention of  the  government  they 
had  renounced  against  the  people 
and  the  authority  of  the  country 
of  their  adoption. "  This  raises  the 
question,  "whether  it  would  not 
be  proper  for  the  United  States  to 
modify  its  laws  of  naturalization." 
This  question  is  answered  in  this 
wise  : 

"For  our  part,  we  do  not  hesi- 
tate to  declare  emphatically  that 
they  ought  to  be  modified.  Any- 


106     IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

one  who  examines  even  superfi- 
cially the  mode  in  which  natural- 
ization takes  place,  easily  convinces 
himself  that  the  great  majority  of 
those  who  acquire  American  citi- 
zenship do  not  comprehend  the 
gravity  of  the  act  they  accomplish. 
At  the  moment  of  their  arrival  in 
the  United  States  the  immigrants 
are  taken  in  hand  by  professional 
politicians  who  persuade  them 
that  it  is  to  their  greatest  inter- 
est to  make  themselves  citizens. 
Very  many  of  the  new  arrivals  are 
illiterate  people  who  come  direct 
from  their  villages  in  Europe, 
who  know  nothing  of  the  customs, 
nor  of  the  laws,  nor  of  the  institu- 
tions of  this  country,  and  who  in 
perfect  good  faith  believe  all  that 
persons  interested  in  the  creating 
of  voters  tell  them.  And  so  they 
become  citizens. 

"Well  now,   tell  these  persons 
that  with  the  declaration  they  have 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.      107 

made  they  have  renounced  their 
own  government  and  belong  no 
longer  to  the  land  of  their  birth, 
and  they  will  laugh  in  your  face. 
They  have  never  intended  to  re- 
nounce their  native  country,  and 
they  never  will  do  so.  But  how 
they  can  reconcile  the  contradic- 
tion of  being  at  the  same  time 
citizens  of  two  nations,  God  alone 
may  be  able  to  divine.  Naturally 
there  are  those  who  become  Amer- 
ican citizens  comprehending  per- 
fectly the  nature  of  the  step,"- 
enumerating  various  classes.  But 
4 '  these  are  the  great  minority. 
We  intend  to  speak  of  the  others. 
These  are  not  and  cannot  become 
good  American  citizens.  Inter- 
rogate them  and  you  will  find  that 
all,  if  they  succeed  in  obtaining  a 
modest  competency,  intend  to  re- 
turn to  their  natal  land.  Speak  to 
them  in  the  language  of  the  land 
of  their  adoption  and  they  will 


108     IMMIGRATION    FALLACIES. 

stammer  unintelligible  words. 
Seek  to  discover  whether  they 
know  anything  of  the  institutions 
of  the  United  States,  and,  even 
though  they  may  have  remained 
here  for  five,  ten,  or  twenty  years, 
they  will  show  themselves  ignorant 
of  the  most  elementary  things. 
Political  aspirations  they  cannot 
have,  because  they  are  illiterate. 
What  kind  of  citizens  can  they  be  ? 
For  the  most  part  they  are  honest 
people  ;  they  are  excellent  workers  ; 
they  obey  the  laws  ;  but  as  citizens 
they  are  simple  tools  in  the  hands 
of  those  who  establish  their  in- 
fluence over  them  to  obtain  their 
votes. 

"  This  is  sufficient  to  demon- 
strate that  a  law  that  admits  such 
a  class  of  citizens  needs  to  be 
amended.  It  is  not  only  five 
years'  residence  that  we  should 
like  to  see  required,  but  ten,  if  not 
a  greater  number,  and  further- 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.      109 

more  upon  the  express  condition 
that  the  aspirant  should  know  how 
to  read  and  write,  and  should  know 
the  fundamental  principles  upon 
which  is  based  the  political  edifice 
of  the  country  he  intends  to  adopt. 
This  is  not  a  question  that  relates 
to  one  nationality  rather  than 
another.  It  regards  all  immi- 
grants, and  if  EElvezia  shall  have 
been  able  to  throw  any  light  upon 
it,  contributing  even  in  the  slightest 
manner  to  bring  about  a  remedy 
for  a  state  of  affairs  so  abnormal 
as  not  to  be  found  in  any  other 
nation,  it  will  feel  that  it  has  per- 
formed something  not  entirely 
useless  for  this  country." 

The  foregoing  extract  was  trans- 
lated into  English  and  published 
in  a  leading  paper  of  the  Pacific 
coast,  which  added,  editorially, 
that  its  words  might  well  put  to 
sharne  some  of  our  native-born 
politicians.  The  editorial  com- 


110    IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

ment  of  this  latter  paper  is  also 
quoted,  because,  as  a  pronounced 
partisan  organ,  it  is  not  likely  to 
magnify  naturalization  abuses, 
while  its  outspoken  arraignment 
of  the  law  foreshadows  a  change 
in  public  sentiment  that  gives  the 
best  promise  of  reform  : 

"We  recently  called  attention 
to  the  insufficiency  of  a  five-year 
probation  to  give  the  present  im- 
migration a  sense  of  American 
nationality,  or  remove  from  the 
immigrants  their  feeling  of  loyalty 
to  and  dependence  upon  the  flag 
they  have  renounced.  Our  views 
startled  the  timid,  who  are  afraid 
of  votes  for  the  sake  of  office  and 
power,  but  we  struck  a  responsive 
chord  in  the  hearts  of  all  true 
American  citizens,  native  and  alien 
born.  It  is  strange  that  the 
cowards  and  time-servers  fail  to 
understand  that  every  immigrant 
who  came  here  from  proper  mo- 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.      Ill 

tives  agrees  that  indiscriminate 
immigration,  with  no  intelligent 
conception  of  the  dignities  of  citi- 
zenship in  a  free  country,  is  the 
surest  means  of  destroying  liberty, 
ruining  its  institutions,  and  de- 
grading the  nation  that  was  in- 
tended to  be  the  theatre  on  which 
the  greatest  free  society  on  earth 
should  perpetually  exploit  its 
genius  and  uphold  the  rights  of 
man.  The  American  may  take  les- 
sons from  many  an  old  immigrant 
who  came  to  seek  freedom  as  more 
precious  than  bread.  The  time 
has  come  to  make  more  difficult 
the  road  to  American  citizenship. 
That  citizenship  cost  lives  and 
fortunes.  It  was  wrought  out  in 
battle,  colored  with  the  blood  of 
patriots,  and  fashioned  by  hands 
that  were  hardened  by  the  use  of 
the  sword  drawn  in  combat  for 
human  rights.  Yet  this  prize  so 
hard-won  is  bestowed  upon  men 


112     IMMIGRATION    FALLACIES. 

who  did  not  earn  it,  and  who  do 
not  appreciate  it,  with  no  more 
ceremony  than  is  lavished  on  tak- 
ing a  glass  of  wine.  The  ceremony 
of  naturalization  should  be  so 
impressive  and  the  approach  to  it 
so  difficult  that  the  man  who  comes 
as  a  candidate  for  this  gift  we 
offer  to  him  will  feel  as  if  he  were 
being  born  again.  We  print  from 
an  Italian  paper  an  editorial  on 
this  subject  which  may  well  put 
many  a  native  politician  to  shame. 
We  commend  its  calm  reasoning 
and  indisputable  statement  of  facts 
to  the  timid  and  cowardly  who  are 
afraid  to  discuss  naturalization 
reform.  No  other  nation,  free  or 
not,  squanders  its  privileges  as 
does  ours.  They  are  nowhere  else 
bestowed  upon  those  who  don't 
ask  for  them  as  they  are  here,  and 
nowhere  else  are  they  permitted  to 
those  unfit  for  them  as  they  are 
here." 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.     113 

From  widely  different  quarters 
have  the  foregoing  selections  been 
presented,  and  in  view  of  their 
source  the  opinions  expressed  can- 
not be  termed  radical  or  extreme. 
In  fact,  exaggeration  would  be 
difficult.  From  change  of  condi- 
tions our  naturalization  laws  have 
become  an  absurdity  and  an 
enormity.  And  the  first  and  best 
hope  of  reform  lies  in  realizing  the 
imperative  need  of  it.  Obviously 
this  topic,  if  it  is  to  be  discussed  at 
all,  cannot  be  fingered  delicately, 
after  the  manner  of  politicians  on 
the  eve  of  election.  On  the  con- 
trary, it  must  be  taken  out  of  and 
above  the  plane  of  "practical  poli- 
tics," and  one  feature  of  the  law 
should  make  that  removal  its  ob- 
ject. 

The  theory  upon  which  the 
naturalization  laws  are  based 
was  well  suited  to  the  condition 

of  affairs  in  this  country,  A.    D. 
8 


114    IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

1802.  That  is  the  date  of  the  law 
prescribing  five  years'  residence 
for  the  alien  who  would  be  a 
voter.  At  that  time  not  only  was 
the  character  of  immigration 
much  higher  than  now,  but  its 
volume  was  comparatively  insig- 
nificant. We  had  no  large  cities, 
no  bosses,  no  colonies,  and  no  pro- 
cess by  which  the  immigrant  could 
be  kept  from  any  Americanizing 
influence.  Taken  as  a  unit  into 
the  current  of  political  and  social 
life,  he  ceased  to  be  a  foreigner  in 
five  years,  and  a  "  foreign  vote5' 
was  unheard  of.  In  short,  the 
naturalization  laws  of  1802  were 
originally  as  wise  as  they  were 
liberal,  a  proof  of  the  political 
genius  of  their  day  and  genera- 
tion. 

To-day  those  same  laws  are  not 
only  an  anachronism,  but  a  source 
of  great  and  growing  peril.  At 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.      115 

least  ten  years  after  his  landing 
should  expire  before  the  present 
immigrant  can  be  entitled  to  the 
ballot,  for  legislation  must  al- 
ways be  for  masses,  not  for 
individuals.  As  things  now  are, 
however,  there  is  no  uniformity  in 
the  law,  and  five  years  is  the  max- 
imum limit  of  restriction,  A  great 
many  states  actually  lessen  this 
scant  period  of  probation.  This  is 
accomplished  by  state  legislation 
providing  that  all  persons  who 
are  citizens  of  the  United  States 
or  have  declared  their  intention 
to  become  citizens,  may  vote  at 
all  elections  after  the  brief  re- 
sidence set  forth  in  the  following 
table. 

So  far  as  the  declaration  of  in- 
tention is  concerned,  Section  2165, 
United  States  Revised  Statutes, 
the  law  of  the  case,  prescribes  a 
five  years'  residence  for  citizen- 


116     IMMIGRATION    FALLACIES. 

ship,  and  that  the  applicant  shall 
declare  on  oath  before  a  court  of 
record  "two  years  prior  to  his 
admission  that  it  is  bona  fide  his 
intention  to  become  a  citizen." 
"Two  years  at  least  prior  to  his 
admission,"  is  decidedly  elastic. 
It  may  equally  well  be  three,  four, 
or  five  years  prior  to  admission. 
In  fact,  there  is  no  reason  why 
an  immigrant  should  not  declare 
his  intention  the  day  he  lands, 
or  the  day  he  reaches  any  of  the 
following  list  of  states,  or  why  he 
should  not  make  the  declaration 
at  any  time  during  the  brief  period 
of  residence  that  the  laws  of  these 
states  have  enacted.  Consequent- 
ly, the  alien  in  such  states  is  en- 
titled to  the  full  privileges  of  citi- 
zenship at  the  end  of  the  times 
respectively  indicated  below  : 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.      117 


STATES  GIVING  POWER  TO  VOTE  IN  ONE 
YEAR  OR  LESS.* 


RESIDENCE. 

— 

Qualification 
of  Voters. 

_£ 

6 

tj 

ja 

1 

I        I 

02 

o          £ 

Alabama  .  . 

Declaration  of 

Arkansas  . 

Intenti 

on.. 

1  year. 

3  mos. 
6     " 

30  days. 
30 

Colorado.. 

6  mos. 

90  days. 

10 

Florida... 

1  year. 

6  mos. 

Indiana  ..  . 
Kansas...  . 

6  mos.t 
6  mos. 

30  days. 
30 

Louisiana. 

1  year. 

6  mos. 

30 

Minnesota 
Missouri  .  . 

4  mos.t 
1  year. 

10  days. 

60     " 

10 

Nebraska  . 
N.  Dakota 

6  mos. 
1  year. 

40     " 
6  mos. 

10  days. 

90     " 

Oregon...  . 

6  mos.t 

S.  Dakota. 

6  mos. 

6  mos. 

30  days'.' 

Texas..... 

1  year. 

6     " 

^Vlsconsin 

1    " 

10  days. 

Wyoming 

1    "    J 

30  days. 

The  time  of  residence  in  the 
foregoing  states  is,  of  course, 
grossly  inadequate.  It  is  well 
adapted  to  bring  the  law  into  con- 
tempt. As  for  allowing  aliens  to 

*  Compiled  from  the  "  Economist  and  Statistician1' 
for  1895-6,  with  two  or  three  minor  corrections. 

t  One  year's  residence  in  the  United  States  is  like- 
wise required. 

tin  the  State  of  Wyoming  this  provision  only 
remains  operative  5  years. 


118    IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

vote  within  six  months  of  their 
arrival,  why  not  arrange  to  hand 
certificates  of  naturalization  to 
them  on  entering  the  state  or 
even  at  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  to 
take  effect  on  entering  the  state  ? 
Such  a  method  would  be  a  little 
more  expeditious  than  the  one 
now  in  vogue  and  not  much  more 
indefensible. 

Besides  requiring  a  residence  of 
at  least  ten  years  before  conferring 
the  right  to  vote,  the  law  should 
prohibit  naturalization  within  one 
year  of  any  election,  even  if  this 
provision  had  the  effect  of  extend- 
ing the  ten-year  period  of  restric- 
tion. 

The  advantage  of  such  a  pro- 
vision is  obvious.  The  voting 
4 'mills,"  which  under  the  present 
law  are  run  under  full  pressure 
almost  up  to  the  election,  would 
proceed  in  a  more  deliberate  and 
far  more  orderly  manner.  Temp- 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.     119 

tation  to  wholesale  and  indiscrimi- 
nate admission  would  be  decidedly 
less.  And  though  party  agents 
and  managers  might  not  be  entire- 
ly free  from  such  temptation  they 
would  feel  the  wholesome  restraint 
of  public  opinion.  This  potent 
influence  is  of  course  relaxed  dur- 
ing the  stress  and  turmoil  of  a 
heated  campaign,  but  once  it  re- 
sumes its  sway  our  feelings  of 
patriotism  so  far  outweigh  those  of 
mere  partisanship  that  the  court 
scenes  which  mark  the  close  of  a 
great  political  contest  would  not 
be  tolerated  a  year  before  the  elec- 
tion. 

Another  indispensable  safeguard 
to  a  pure  and  intelligent  ballot  is 
a  requirement  that  every  voter 
should  be  able  to  read  and  write 
the  language  of  his  adopted,  coun- 
try. This  is  a  moot  point,  but  the 
general  drift  of  recent  discussion 
inclines  to  such  a  limited  educa- 


120    IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

tional  test  ;  one  that  is  in  com- 
plete accord  with  our  theory  of 
government,  and  has  been  adopted 
in  several  states.  The  wide  ex- 
tension of  the  Australian  ballot, 
itself  a  test  of  illiteracy,  in  face  of 
strong  opposition,  shows  the  trend 
of  reaction  from  the  idea  of  uni- 
versal suffrage,  so-called.* 

*  It  may  be  interesting  to  compare  a  re- 
cent expression  on  this  subject  of  an  edu- 
cational requirement  for  the  suffrage  with 
one  recorded  many  years  ago,  but  both  from 
a  democratic  source. 

*'  This  organization  has  always  been  and 
is  now  ready  to  co-operate  in  the  enactment 
of  any  law  which  will  reduce  the  expenses 
of  elections  and  promote  the  purity  of  the 
ballot,  but  it  is  unalterably  opposed  to  any 
legislation  which,  under  the  specious  pre- 
text of  reform,  seeks  to  impose  any  qualifi- 
cation on  suffrages,  either  of  property  or  of 
education.  .  .  .  We  pledge  our  hearty 
support  to  any  bill  which  will  provide  for 
the  isolation  of  the  voter  while  preparing 
his  ballot  .  .  .  but  we  protest  against  any 
change  in  our  electoral  system  which  would 
disfranchise  a  single  honest  man  by  discour- 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.     121 

There  are  various  defects  in  the 
present  statute,  by  which  fraud 
and  deception  are  practised.  Al- 
though one  section  provides  that 
a  declaration  of  intention  to  become 
a  citizen  must  precede  the  applica- 
tion for  citizenship  itself,  there  is  no 
sure  way  of  identifying  the  appli- 
cant as  the  man  who  has  declared 

aging  the  exercise  of  the  suffrage  by  the 
illiterate  or  the  infirm." — TAMMANY  HALL, 
by  resolution  unanimously  adopted  Jan. 
26,  1890. 

"  In  the  constitution  of  Spain,  as  proposed 
by  the  late  Cortez,  there  was  a  principle  en- 
tirely new  to  me,  and  not  noticed  in  yours, 
that  no  person  born  after  that  day  should 
ever  acquire  the  rights  of  citizenship  until  he 
could  read  and  write.  Of  all  those  which 
have  been  thought  of  for  securing  fidelity 
in  the  administration  of  the  government, 
constant  reliance  on  the  principles  of  the 
constitution  .  .  .  it  is  the  most  effectual. 
Enlighten  the  people  generally,  and  tyranny 
and  oppressions  of  body  and  mind  will  van- 
ish like  evil  spirits  at  the  dawn  of  day."- 
THOMAS  JEFFERSON,  in  a  letter  to  Dupont 
de  Nemours  dated  April  16,  1816. 


122     IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

his  intention,  though  the  old  law 
of  1802  secured  this  identification. 
But  it  is  not  the  purpose  nor  within 
the  scope  of  this  paper  to  dwell  on 
minor  blemishes,  but  to  advocate 
a  fundamental  change  of  policy. 

One  important  alteration  in  our 
present  system,  and  the  last  to  be 
suggested,  concerns  the  method  of 
bestowing  the  gift  of  the  suffrage. 
While  the  regulations  for  examin- 
ing applicants  ought  to  be  in  no 
way  oppressive,  it  should  be  the 
policy  of  the  law  to  make  them 
impressive  and  even  imposing,. 
The  time  required  to  pass  upon  the 
merits  of  each  case,  including  proof 
of  identity,  residence,  character, 
and  general  qualification,  need  not 
be  long,  and  very  seldom  would  be 
if  the  applicant  could  answer  for 
himself  without  the  aid  of  an  in- 
terpreter. But  the  country  owes 
to  itself  as  well  as  the  applicant 
that  an  appearance  of  solemnity 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.     123 

mark  the  proceedings  commensu- 
rate in  some  degree  with  the  great 
value  and  dignity  of  the  privilege 
sought  and  conferred.  Instead  of 
the  utterly  undignified  and  helter 
skelter  procedure  so  much  in 
vogue,  all  the  surroundings,  as 
well  as  the  language  and  demeanor 
of  the  judge  and  court  officials, 
should  indicate  the  interest  and 
importance  of  the  occasion.  Per- 
haps it  would  assist  in  produc- 
ing the  effect  desired,  and  enhance 
in  the  eyes  of  the  new-comers  the 
great  duty  and  privilege  of  Ameri- 
can citizenship,  were  the  follow- 
ing words  of  an  American  states- 
man— more  familiar  to  us  than 
to  them — posted  conspicuously  on 
the  walls  in  full  view  of  every 
aspirant:  li  The  boastful  assever- 
ation of  the  Roman,  '  Civis  Ro- 
manus  sum,'  is  tame  and  unmean- 
ing when  contrasted  with  the  full 
meaning  of  the  declaration,  '  I  am 


124     IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

an  American  citizen.'  To  possess 
a  title  to  that  distinction,  the 
more  precious  because  enjoyed 
and  to  be  enjoyed  by  countless 
millions,  is  the  most  priceless  tem- 
poral gift  of  God  to  man.  You 
must  spend  days  in  reflection ;  you 
must  call  to  your  aid  the  annals 
of  history  through  long  cycles  of 
time  ;  you  must  hear  the  cry  of 
the  oppressed  for  ages  ;  you  must 
listen  to  the  tumult  of  a  thousand 
battles  ending  in  a  deeper  degra- 
dation, before  you  can  estimate 
the  worth  of  American  citizenship, 
with  its  immunities  from  thral- 
dom, its  elevating  rights  and  priv- 
ileges, and  its  opportunities  for 
dignity  and  usefulness." 


IMMIGRATION  FALLACIES.     125 


CHAPTER  V. 

EUROPEAN     RESPONSIBILITY     FOR 
AMERICAN    CRIME.* 

THE  following  chapter  treats 
mainly  of  the  episode  of  the  Mafia 
outbreak  and  lynchings  in  New 
Orleans.  It  is  added,  however, 
because  it  illustrates  one  of  the  ap- 
palling features  of  immigration, 
the  persistent  policy  of  foreign  of- 
ficials to  unload  on  our  devoted 

*  By  this  is  meant  responsibility  of  Euro- 
pean governments  for  American  crime, 
which  is  largely  due  to  the  vast  criminal 
immigration  aided  or  abetted  by  those 
governments.  A  good  deal  of  this  chapter 
was  first  published  in  the  San  Francisco 
Alia  California  some  years  ago,  under  the 
title,  "Italy  vs.  America,  A  Plea  in  Justi- 
fication." 


126     IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

shores  their  most  worthless  and 
dangerous  classes.  It  is  astonish- 
ing how  little  attention  this  phase 
of  the  problem  has  received.  And 
this  experience  at  New  Orleans  and 
the  international  complication  that 
ensued  show  that  entire  neglect 
of  the  history  of  immigration  re- 
ferred to  in  a  preceding  chapter. 
If  that  history  had  been  at  all 
familiar  the  probable  complicity  of 
Italy  in  the  Mafia  immigration 
would  have  been  known,  and  it 
surely  would  have  been  dwelt  on 
when  the  discussion  was  rife.  But 
hardly  an  allusion  to  Italian  re- 
sponsibility appeared  at  the  time. 
If  the  department  of  state  were 
posted  in  this  matter  it  might  not 
come  amiss  in  the  next  inter- 
national crisis. 

Justification  to  ourselves,  to  our 
children,  to  civilization  is  im- 
possible for  such  an  outbreak 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.     127 

as  recently  occurred  at  New 
Orleans.  For  it  was  the  natural 
development  and  outgrowth  of  the 
social  conditions  which  more  and 
more  are  coming  to  prevail  in  all 
the  large  cities  of  the  country.  We 
have  long  permitted  an  indis- 
criminate immigration  of  an- 
archist, communist,  nihilist,  pau- 
per, criminal,  contract  laborer, 
Chinese  highbinder,  and  Italian 
brigand,  and  the  results  of  the  ex- 
periment are  becoming  apparent. 
Class  and  race  conflicts  of  growing 
magnitude  will  ensue,  alternating 
with  an  occasional  carnival  of 
crime  such  as  we  have  just  wit- 
nessed. 

These  considerations  certainly 
merit  more  careful  attention  than 
we  have  been  wont  to  bestow  on 
them.  Although  perhaps  not 
touching  directly  the  international 
issue,  they  have  yet  a  bearing  upon 
it.  Moreover,  the  Louisiana  affair, 


128     IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

viewed  from  this  aspect,  alters  the 
meaning  of  the  facts  and  sheds  a 
new  light  on  the  situation  there, 
tending  to  shift  a  considerable  part 
of  the  responsibility  for  what  has 
happened  from  the  people  of  New 
Orleans  to  the  people  of  the  United 
States. 

Of  course  opinions  will  differ  as 
to  whether  a  community  is  ever 
justified  in  taking  the  law  into  its 
own  hands  during  times  of  peace. 
We  may  not  feel  disposed  to  ex- 
onerate the  people  of  New  Orleans 
or  even  to  extenuate  their  action. 
But  there  is  no  reason  why  we 
should  not  try  to  look  at  the  matter 
from  a  New  Orleans  standpoint, 
and  to  do  so  might  afford  us  a 
better  insight  into  the  conditions 
and  circumstances  that  led  to  the 
tragedy. 

It  is  quite  evident  that  the  people 
of  the  Southern  city  regard  all  that 
has  happened  as  a  calamity  rather 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.     129 

than  as  a  crime,  so  far  as  they 
themselves  are  concerned.  On  no 
other  hypothesis  is  it  possible  to 
account  for  the  deliberate  action  of 
the  mob  and  the  determined,  per- 
sistent attitude  of  the  populace 
after  the  occurrence.  To  justify 
the  step  taken  the  claim  was  made 
that  in  no  other  way  was  it  possible 
to  mete  out  justice,  or  what  was 
deemed  justice,  which  implies  that 
the  general  social  conditions  and 
the  character  of  a  portion  of  the 
population  rendered  the  law  power- 
less. Herein  lies  the  real  interest 
and  gravity  of  the  case,  for  what 
is  true  of  the  social  conditions  of 
New  Orleans  and  of  the  character 
of  her  population  is  true  to  a 
greater  or  less  extent  of  every  large 
city  in  the  United  States. 

In  the  administration  of  justice 
under  our  laws  the  only  recognized 
or  authorized  punishment  of  crime 
is  by  means  of  that  eminently 


130     IMMIGRATION    FALLACIES. 

Anglo-Saxon  institution,  trial  by 
jury.  Whether  trial  by  jury  can 
accomplish  the  purpose  for  which 
it  was  designed  depends  almost 
entirely  upon  the  character  and 
disposition  of  the  population  of  a 
country.  The  people  from  whom 
the  jury  are  drawn  need  to  have 
a  certain  amount  of  intelligence, 
education,  judicial  capacity,  and 
training  in  self-government.  And 
then  the  general  sentiment  of  the 
community  must  be  one  of  law 
and  order,  a  sentiment  that  may 
criticise  the  law,  but  will  only 
under  the  most  exceptional  circum- 
stances fail  to  guard  and  uphold 
it. 

We  can  really  best  appreciate 
this  peculiar  feature  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  civilization  by  reflecting 
how  obviously  impracticable  any- 
thing like  a  general  extension  of 
trial  by  jury  would  be  in  certain 
parts  of  Europe.  There  are  some 


IMMIGRATION    FALLACIES.     131 

sections  of  their  native  country  in 
which,  were  members  of  the  Mafia 
to  be  indicted  for  crime,  no  one 
would  think  of  claiming  for  them 
the  right  of  jury  trial.  The 
political  and  social  conditions 
which  obtain  would  render  it  im- 
possible to  accord  them  that  privi- 
lege. In  various  parts  of  Italy  it 
might  not  be  feasible  to  find  a  jury 
of  the  neighborhood  possessing 
the  requisite  qualifications  derived 
from  training  and  experience.  Nor 
could  the  surrounding  population 
be  relied  upon  to  uphold  the  verdict 
of  a  jury.  Those  who  might  en- 
deavor to  influence  the  jurymen  or 
to  interfere  with  the  execution  of 
their  decree  would  conceive  that  in 
so  doing  they  were  striking  a  blow 
not  at  the  people  or  at  the  country, 
but  merely  at  the  state  as  an  in- 
strument of  government,  a  view 
likely  to  be  shared  by  a  consider- 
able part  of  the  people,  and  strik- 


132     IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

ingly  illustrative  of  the  difference 
in  the  theory  of  government  be- 
tween the  Anglo-Saxon  and  Con- 
tinental systems. 

Until  a  people  become  thor- 
oughly imbued  with  the  English 
or  American  idea  of  administrating 
justice,  trial  by  jury  cannot  be 
relied  upon.  Its  most  conspicuous 
failures  in  this  country  now  and  for 
years  past  have  been  in  our  large 
cities,  where  the  population  is  only 
partially  Americanized.  Bribery 
is  the  usual  and  familiar  means  of 
defeating  or  baffling  justice.  That 
bribery  and  intimidation  sometimes 
succeed  and  frequently  remain  un- 
detected is  due  partly  to  the  char- 
acter of  the  jury,  and  largely  to 
the  character  of  the  surrounding 
population,  certain  classes  of  which 
seem  to  have  no  adequate  apprecia- 
tion of  the  enormity  of  the  offense. 

Criminals  themselves  and  their 
immediate  friends  may  be  expected 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.     133 

in  any  country  to  attempt  unlaw- 
ful methods  of  influencing  a  judge 
or  jury.  But  wherever  the  jury 
system  prevails  it  is  presumed 
that,  as  a  measure  of  self-defense, 
the  community  will  be  ever  on  the 
alert  to  detect  and  punish  bribery. 
In  a  republic  like  ours  jury  bribing 
and  intimidation  are  the  greatest 
of  crimes,  aimed  not  merely  at  gov- 
ernment, but  at  the  very  founda- 
tions of  society,  at  the  people  them- 
selves ;  for  here,  in  a  fuller  sense 
than  elsewhere,  the  people  are  the 
state. 

At  the  New  Orleans  trial,  bri- 
bery, it  appears,  was  not  the  only 
influence  brought  to  bear.  If  we 
are  to  credit  the  reports  the  jury 
and  their  families  were  threatened 
with  death  in  case  of  conviction. 
Under  the  circumstances  this  could 
have  been  no  vague  or  empty 
threat.  It  would  make  a  vivid 
impression  on  the  minds  of  men 


134     IMMIGRATION    FALLACIES. 

having  before  their  eyes  the  fate 
of  a  prominent  official  who  had 
fallen  by  the  same  hands  which 
menaced  them,  assassinated  openly 
in  the  public  streets.  If  an  armed 
and  courageous  officer  of  the  law 
had  suffered  death,  what  prospect 
had  a  private  citizen  of  escaping 
that  fate  ? 

If  the  foregoing  description 
pictures  truly  the  condition  of 
affairs,  it  might  be  said  that  the 
final  catastrophe,  the  climax,  was 
inevitable.  The  collision  between 
the  officers  of  the  law  and  the 
Mafia  may  have  been  its  occasion, 
but  the  settlement  in  the  com- 
munity of  large  numbers  of  bandits 
and  assassins  was  the  real  cause. 
Associations  of  men  secretly  or- 
ganized for  the  purpose  of  black- 
mail, and  resorting  toassassination, 
whether  to  accomplish  the  purpose 
or  to  punish  their  foes,  are  modern 
Ishmaelites  destined  to  come  in 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.     185 

conflict  with  the  law  in  any  com- 
munity. Criminals  at  home, 
criminals  they  remain.  Coelum 
non  animam  mutant.  Louisiana 
does  not  afford  the  only  illustration 
of  their  peculiar  traits.  The 
daily  press  for  years  past  has 
chronicled  the  doings  and  misdoings 
of  the  Mafia  in  various  parts  of 
the  country. 

The  ordinary  methods  and 
measures  of  law  would  not  be  ap- 
plied to  them  in  their  native  land, 
and  experience  has  shown  that 
in  a  republic  such  methods  and 
measures  are  even  less  effective 
than  in  a  monarchy.  These  con- 
siderations should  induce  leniency 
of  judgment  towards  our  country- 
men of  the  South,  and  might  well 
give  pause  to  some  of  their  critics. 
Instead  of  putting  the  entire  bur- 
den of  responsibility  on  the  people 
of  New  Orleans,  who  have  nothing 
whatever  to  do  with  foreign  im- 


136     IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

migration,  it  would  be  more  just 
and  more  generous  to  hold  our- 
selves accountable. 

Such  a  course  also  might  prove 
more  politic  in  treating  with  the 
government  of  Italy.  Nothing 
that  has  so  far  been  said  could 
avail  us  much  as  an  argument  in 
the  international  dispute,  except  in 
conjunction  with  oilier  circum- 
stances and  considerations.  To 
urge,  for  instance,  that  the  New 
Orleans  victims  were  confirmed 
law-breakers,  incapable  of  being 
dealt  with  like  ordinary  criminals, 
and  to  point  to  Italy's  own  ex- 
perience in  confirmation,  seems 
perhaps  to  invite  the  question, 
Why,  then,  did  the  government  of 
the  United  States  admit  them  ? 

But  that  is  precisely  the  ques- 
tion which  Italy  is  not  likely  to 
put.  It  might  be  an  awkward 
query — for  Italy.  Such  an  inquiry 
would  lead  naturally  to  questions 


IMMIGRATION    FALLACIES.      137 

on  our  part,  and  the  result  of  a 
thorough  examination  would  per- 
haps show  that  the  Italian  govern- 
ment was  directly  concerned  in  the 
immigration  of  the  Mafia,  and 
therefore  like  the  government  of 
the  United  States  to  some  extent  a 
particeps  criminis. 

This  New  Orleans  incident  ap- 
pears to  have  caused  the  world  as 
much  surprise  as  horror.  But  the 
governments  of  the  world  have  no 
occasion  for  surprise  at  anything 
that  has  occurred.  Our  official  and 
diplomatic  records  disclose  the  fact 
that  for  many  years  we  have  at- 
tributed largely  to  governmental 
influence  the  pauper  and  criminal 
element  of  our  foreign  immigra- 
tion, and  have  addressed  repeated 
but  futile  remonstrances  on  the 
subject  to  various  foreign  govern- 
ments. 

More  than  fifty  years  ago  Con- 
gress began  to  investigate  the 


138     IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 


matter,  and  in  1838  reported  : 
"  The  fact  is  unquestionable  that 
large  numbers  of  foreigners  are 
annually  brought  to  our  country 
by  the  authority  and  at  the  expense 
of  foreign  governments  and  landed 
upon  our  shores  in  a  state  of  ab- 
solute destitution  and  dependence, 
many  of  them  of  the  most  idle  and 
vicious  class.  Many  of  them  "  ( the 
emigrants)  "  are  outcasts,  paupers, 
vagrants,  and  malefactors  from 
the  poorhouses  and  penitentiaries 
of  Europe  sent  hither  at  the  ex- 
pense of  foreign  governments." 
Despite  our  protests  and  the 
remedial  legislation  of  1838,  the 
committee  of  foreign  affairs  made 
a  report  to  the  House  again  in 
1856  on  "  foreign  criminals  and 
paupers,"  the  statistics  in  which 
amply  justify  this  statement  of  the 
committee:  " Crime  and  pauper- 
ism are  the  bane  of  a  republic  .  .  . 
That  these  evils  have  of  late  years 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.      139 

grown  far  beyond  the  ratio  of  the 
increase  of  population  is  an  ad- 
mitted fact.  .  .  .  Thousands  have 
come  hither  "  (within  the  ten  years 
preceding  the  report)  4 '  to  fill  our 
streets  as  beggars  or  to  become  the 
inmates  of  our  almshouses  and 
other  charitable  institutions.  Un- 
desirable as  such  a  population  may 
be,  we  are  yet  afflicted  with  one 
of  a  still  worse  character  derived 
from  the  same  source.  Our  coun- 
try has  been  converted  into  a  sort 
of  penal  colony  to  which  foreign 
governments  ship  their  criminals. 
It  is  not  only  the  thriftless  poor 
who  come  hither,  but  inmates  of 
the  prisons  of  Europe  are  sent 
hither  by  their  governments  to 
prey  upon  society  and  to  contam- 
inate our  people  with  their  vices." 
But  the  evil  complained  of  was 
not  even  abated  until  the  rigorous 
legislation  of  1882,  and  nothing 
like  a  cure  has  ever  been  effected. 


140     IMMIGRATION    FALLACIES. 

For  the  report  on  the  importation 
of  contract  labor  (1889)  discloses 
the  agreeable  fact  that  the  govern- 
ments of  England,  Ireland,  Ger- 
many, and  Switzerland  were  and 
probably  are  still  offering  various 
inducements  to  their  worthless  and 
criminal  classes  to  take  up  their 
abode  with  us. 

So  far  as  Italian  subjects  are 
concerned,  the  testimony  elicited 
by  the  committee  of  1889  was  in- 
conclusive. In  this  connection, 
however,  there  are  several  facts  of 
significance.  The  superintendent 
of  the  immigrant  landing-depot 
in  New  York  testified  that  every 
Italian  who  comes  here  is  provided 
with  a  passport  by  his  government, 
a  rule  which  is  by  no  means  uni- 
versal among  other  nationalities. 
In  response  to  a  question  whether 
it  would  not  therefore  be  impos- 
sible for  an  Italian  criminal  to  land, 
the  answer  was  :  "  We  have  sent 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.     141 

them  back  " — Italian  criminals, 
be  it  noted — "  within  ten  days,  and 
they  had  their  passports.  Q.  Noth- 
ing was  mentioned  in  the  passport 
that  they  had  been  convicted  of  a 
crime  ?  A.  Nothing,  sir.  Q.  Your 
opinion  is  based  upon  your  knowl- 
edge that  it  is  just  as  easy  for  a 
convict,  for  a  criminal,  to  obtain  a 
passport  as  for  any  other  person  ? 
A.  So  far  as  I  know,  that  is  so." 

Such  testimony  assumes  special 
importance  in  view  of  the  recent 
admissions  of  Italian  papers  that 
the  Mafia  and  other  Sicilian  bandits 
and  assassins  have  been  uprooted 
by  the  authorities  and  driven  out 
of  their  native  country.  But  what 
is  the  land  of  their  exile  ?  As  large 
numbers  have  recently  appeared 
among  us  it  seems  natural  to  con- 
clude that,  unless  Italy  has  de- 
parted from  the  general  European 
custom,  they  were  destined  for 
these  United  States.  The  compar- 


142     IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

atively  recent  influx  of  Italian  im- 
migration also  has  an  important 
bearing  upon  the  question  of 
Italy's  responsibility  for  the  pres- 
ence here  of  the  Mafia.  And  the 
continued  arrival  of  such  an  un- 
desirable element  illustrates  the 
efficacy  of  the  latest  and  most  rigid 
of  our  laws  that  were  designed  to 
bar  its  entrance.  These  laws  were 
passed  in  1882,  and  are  presumed 
to  have  checked  undesirable  im- 
migration. It  is  since  that  date, 
however,  that  the  bulk  of  the 
Italian,  including  the  Sicilian  and 
Mafian,  immigration  has  reached 
us. 

Now,  if  it  is  a  fact  that  the 
Italian  government  is  responsible 
for  the  presence  here  of  the  Mafia 
organizations,  were  we  accountable 
to  Italy  for  the  New  Orleans  affair 
under  the  code  of  international  or 
moral  law  ?  If  Italy,  like  other 
nations,  has  been  making  us  "  a 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.     143 

sort  of  penal  colony  "  for  the  Mafia 
and  kindred  societies,  is  she  not 
the  real  cause  of  the  late  catastro- 
phe, or,  at  least,  has  she  not  con- 
tributed to  it,  to  use  a  legal  phrase, 
in  such  sense  as  to  bar  all  claims 
to  reparation  ?  If  her  claims  are 
not  barred,  by  all  means  let  us 
make  every  amend  in  our  power 
and  add  in  no  way  to  the  load  of 
responsibility — the  responsibility 
already  alluded  to  and  admitted— 
which  rests  upon  our  shoulders. 

But  why  not  seize  the  opportu- 
nity to  assert  claims  of  our  own, 
claims  to  immunity  from  the  in- 
juries we  so  long  have  suffered 
from  the  nations  of  Europe  ?  Our 
government  has  protested  and  leg- 
islated to  little  effect,  it  would 
seem,  and  now  it  might  be  well  for 
the  voice  of  the  people  to  be  heard. 
Whether  or  not  the  people  of  New 
Orleans  were  justifiable  is  open  to 
question.  But  if  the  people  of  the 


144     IMMIGRATION    FALLACIES. 

United  States  should  assert  them- 
selves in  an  unmistakable  manner 
at  this  time,  there  can  be  little 
doubt  of  the  beneficial  effect  of 
such  action.  Let  us  request  the 
government  of  the  United  States 
to  ascertain  whether  Italy  induced 
the  Mafia  to  emigrate  to  this 
country.  If  that  responsibility 
rests  on  Italy,  we  also  are  surely 
entitled  to  ask  redress. 

When  the  subjects  of  one  nation 
are  unjustly  treated  by  those  of 
another,  the  offended  nation  de- 
mands satisfaction,  and  satisfac- 
tion refused  is  deemed  a  casns 
belli.  Such  was  Italy's  position, 
ordinarily  an  unassailable  one. 
But  if  maltreatment  of  individual 
subjects  is  a  casus  belli,  why  not 
make  the  future  shipment  of  large 
numbers  of  paupers  and  criminals 
to  the  shores  of  a  friendly  nation  a 
casus  belli  f  What  deeper,  dead- 
lier injury  can  one  nation  inflict  on 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.     145 

another  ?  An  attempted  invasion 
by  the  armies  of  Europe  would  in 
reality  be  far  less  menacing  to  our 
institutions,  to  our  civilization, 
than  the  invasion  we  actually  en- 
;dure. 

Whatever  the  wrongs  of  Italy 
in  the  recent  controversy,  those  of 
America  were  at  least  as  great, 
and  they  fail  to  obtain  the  slightest 
recognition.  If  we  owe  reparation, 
let  us  discharge  the  debt,  asserting, 
however,  our  own  rights  in  un- 
mistakable language,  so  that  some 
good  may  grow  out  of  this  evil.* 

*  At  the  time  of  the  New  Orleans  out- 
break the  following  vigorous  resolutions 
were  passed  by  a  patriotic  society  and 
published  in  Western  papers  : 

"  Resolution  One. 

"  Whereas  the  recent  tragedy  at  the  city 
of  New  Orleans  has  surprised  and  horrified 
the  world,  and  has  called  forth  general 
criticism  and  condemnation,  and,  whereas, 
we  believe  that  the  presence  in  large 
numbers  in  any  community  of  the  class 
10 


146     IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES. 

known  as  the  Mafia  may  render  the  ordi- 
nary operation  of  justice  impossible — 

"  Resolved,  that  as  American  citizens  we 
sympathize  with  the  citizens  of  New  Orleans 
in  the  experience  they  have  recently  under- 
gone, and  desire  to  express  our  conviction 
that  the  circumstances  of  the  case  may  have 
justified  the  people — the  ultimate  source  of 
law — in  taking  into  their  own  hands  the 
execution  of  the  law. 

"  Resolution  Two. 

"  Whereas  the  governments  of  Europe 
have  long  been  directly  instrumental  in 
shipping  pauper  and  criminal  immigration 
to  America  against  our  repeated  protests, 
and,  whereas,  there  is  strong  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  the  government  of  Italy  has 
proved  no  exception  to  the  general  rule, 
Resolved,  that  we  deem  it  a  fitting  time  to 
urge  the  government  of  the  United  States 
to  investigate  Italian  immigration  to  ascer- 
tain whether  the  Italian  government  has 
been  aiding  or  abetting  pauper  and  criminal 
immigration  to  our  country  ;  and, 

''Whereas,  the  government  of  Italy  has 
claimed  indemnity  and  satisfaction  from 
the  government  of  the  United  States  for 
the  death  or  maltreatment  of  certain  alleged 
Italian  citizens  at  New  Orleans, 

"  Resolved,  that  we  favor  granting  such 
satisfaction  to  the  Italian  government  as 


IMMIGRATION   FALLACIES.       147 

international  law  or  the  peculiar  circum- 
stances of  the  case  may  require,  but  in  case 
the  Italian  government  is  responsible  for  the 
presence  here  of  certain  criminal  classes,  we 
urge  upon  our  government  our  right  and 
our  duty  to  claim  redress. — Resolved,  that 
we  favor  making  the  future  shipment  of 
paupers  and  criminals  to  this  country  by 
foreign  governments  a  casus  belli.11 

THE  END. 


Some  Admirable  Novels  by  Southern 

Writers,  Depicting  Southern  Life. 


Born  in  the  Whirlwind. 

By  Rev.  William  Adams,  D.D.  The  plan  of  the  work  is 
admirable,  sometimes  even  bold  and  striking,  its  plot 
ingenious  and  well  sustained,  its  tone  lofty  Mnd  pure,  its 
motive  and  moral  suited  to  stimul  ite  lotty  aspirations 
and  to  make  duplicity  and  revenge  hateful  in  our  eyes. 
The  style,  moreover,  is  verv  fine. —  Christian  Observer, 
Louisville,  Ky.  Cloth,  $1.25;  paper,  50  cents. 

Redbank. 

By  M.  L,.  Cowles.  This  book  abounds  in  delightful  de- 
scriptions of  old  Soutnern  •'  dining-days."  of  free,  joyous 
ridis  through  the  pines,  of  child-life  on  the  plant  tion  — 
of  all  things,  in  short,  that  make  up  the  real  South, 
known  only  to  the  >voutherner  and  never  portrayed  more 
faithfully,  more  grapnically,  more  charmingly,  th  -n  by 
Mrs.  Cowles.  Mrs.  Cowh  s  is  a  fairer  representative  of 
Southern  culture,  a  far  better  exponent  of  Southern  ieel* 
ing  and  customs,  than  some  other  writers  of  that  section. 
All  Southerners  who  feel  an  interest  in  the  authors  of  the 
South,  all  Northerners  who  desire  to  obtain  an  insiyht 
into  real  Southern  life,  should  read  this  valuable  and 
thoroughly  delightful  novel. —  Public  Opinion,  New 
York.  Cloth,  $1.00;  paper,  50  cents. 

A  Mute  Confessor. 

By  Will  N.  Harben.    A  stirring  romance  of  a  Southern 

town. 

Full  of  beauty  and  strength  combined;  an  ideal  union.— 

Boston  Ideas. 

If  knowledge  and  insight  and  the  flawless  taste  of  the 

artist  can  make  a  popular  novel,  "  A  Mute  Confessor" 

will  be  one  of  the  season's  literary  successes. —  New  York 

Home  Journal.    Cloth,  $1.00;  paper,  50  cents. 

David  and  Abigail. 

By  B.  F.  Sawyer.  "David  and  Abigail"  is,  notwith- 
standing its  biblical  title,  a  story  of  modern  da>~s.  It  is  a 
wholesome  story;  it  will  be  read  around  the  evening 
lamp.  Men  will  smile,  women  may  cry;  all  will  be 
better  for  the  reading.  Cloth,  $1.25;  paper,  50  cents. 


ARENA   PUBLISHING   CO. 

Pierce  Building.  Copley  Square,  BOSTON,  Mass. 


A  NEW  STORY  PAINTING  THE  ROMANCE 

HISTORY  OF  THE  COLONIZATION  OF  AMERICA  AS 

IT  MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN. 


KRISTOPIM. 

A  HISTORY  IN  ROMANCE. 

BY  CASTELLO  N.  HOLFORD. 

One  of  the  most  strikingly  original  romances  issued  from  the  press 
in  recent  years.  It  is  founded  on  a  perfectly  novel  idea,  never  be- 
fore utilized  in  fiction,  and  gives  an  imaginative  picture  of  what  this 
country  and  its  history  "might  have  been"  had  its  foundations 
been  laid  and  its  beginnings  moulded  under  the  fostering  care  of  a 
man  of  thoroughly  enlightened  views,  animated  by  the  single  desire 
of  benefiting  his  fellow-creatures  to  the  utmost. 

Aristopia  is  the  name  of  a  colony  founded  by  a  young  English- 
man in  Virginia  in  the  seventeenth  century,  under  a  charter  obtained 
from  King  James.  The  name,  like  that  of  Sir  Thomas  M  ore's 
famous  social  vision,  is  derived  from  the  Greek  and  means  *'  the 
best  place."  The  author's  purpose  in  telling  this  facinating  story  of 
colonization  in  the  seventeenth  century,  is  not  to  look  forward  to 
some  impossible  millennial  society,  such  as  that  pictured  in  More's 
"  Utopia,"  or  Bellamy's"  Looking  Backward/'  but  to  show  the  lost 
opportunities  of  the  past.  A  glowing  picture  is  given  of  the  uni- 
versal prosperity,  peace,  contentment,  and  happiness  which  would 
have  been  the  lot  of  the  people  under  such  favoring  circumstances, 
and  of  the  earthly  paradise  which  the  country  would  by  this  time 
have  become,  in  place  of  the  spectacle  of  social  and  political  unrest 
which  it  now  presents.  Aside  from  the  interest  of  the  story,  the 
book  will  provide  much  food  for  thought  for  reformers  and  others 
who  are  seeking  a  sure  pathway  out  of  our  present  bemuddlement. 


Price,  Cloth,  $1.25;  Paper,  So  Cents. 

For  sale  by  all  Booksellers  or  sent  postpaid  on  receipt  of  price  by 
the  publishers. 

THE  ARENA  PUBLISHING  CO., 

Copley  Square,  Boston,  Mass. 


IMMIGRATION    FALLACIES. 


The  ONLY  Recent  Book  on  Immigration. 


WHAT  THE  THINKERS  THINK  OF  IT. 

A  most  admirable  presentation  of  a  most  important 
subject.  I  beg  you  will  feel  free  to  say  that  I  think  no 
more  important  subject  can  possibly  engage  the  minds  of 
American  citizens  at  this  time,  and  no  better  presentation 
of  the  argument  can  be  found  than  is  contained  in  your 
book.— Kt  Rev.  W.  C.  Doane,  D.  D.,LL.D.,  Bishop  of  Al- 
bany. 

"  Admirably  written  and  extremely  well  calculated  for 
its  purpose.  It  should  be  widely  circulated,  and  I  think 
the  Immigration  Restriction  League  should  have  ten  or 
twenty  thousand  copies  distributed  all  over  the  country." 
—Sydney  G.  Fisher,  Author  of  Evolution  oi  United  States 
Constitution,  etc.,  etc. 

"  I  have  read  it  with  great  interest  and  I  think  it  an  ad- 
mirable statement  of  the  question  from  your  point  of 
view."— Abram  S.  Hewitt,  ex-Congressman  and  ex- 
Mayor  of  New  York. 

"  Very  interesting  and  valuable.  A  powerful  contribu- 
tion to  one  of  the  most  momentous  questions  affecting 
American  civilization."— John  J.  Ingails,  ex-Senator  of 
the  United  States. 

"It  seems  to  me  your  argument  is  unanswerable.  Un" 
doubtedly  the  stability  of  our  government  is  seriously  en' 
dangered  by  indiscriminate  immigration."— Joseph  Le 
Conte,  LL.  D.  Sc.,  etc.,  Professor  in  Geology  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  California. 

"  I  have  read  your  little  book  with  much  interest.  Its 
ideas  seem  to  me  sound  and  well  expressed.  Very  few 
people  realize  how  much  of  the  poverty  of  our  great  cities 
is  due  to  the  inherited  inefficiency  from  the  slums  of 
Europe,  producing  a  type  of  degenerate  men  who  can  be 
free  under  no  government  and  whose  life  no  social  condi- 


tions  can  make  effective."— David  S.  Jordan,  LL.  D.,  etc., 
etc.,  President  of  Stanford  University. 

"  I  heartily  agree  with  you  in  your  conclusions  as  to  the 
results  and  effects  of  indiscriminate  immigration.  I  wish 
every  citizen  of  the  United  States,  native  or  foreign  born, 
might  read  your  little  book."— Frank  Soule,  Ph.  D.,  etc., 
Prof.  Civil  Engineering  University  of  California. 

"  I  read  the  book  with  great  interest.  I  am  glad  you 
have  given  your  thought  to  a  question  of  such  vital  impor- 
tance to  our  people."— John  G.  Hibben,  Ph.i  D.,  Prof,  of 
Logic  ia  Princeton  University. 

WHAT  THE  CRITICS  SAY. 

"A  very  clear  and  convincing  statement  of  the  enormous 
evils  resulting  from  immigration.  The  author  has  strong 
convictions  and  the  great  gift  of  putting  them  in  clear 
language  and  with  force  .that  compels  attention.  The 
joint  evils"  (of  unrestricted  immigration  and  a  too  pre- 
cipitate bestowal  of  the  suffrage),  "are  pointed  out  in  a 
way  that  ought  to  rouse  the  people  of  this  land.  The  two 
points  argued  in  this  book  are  as  worthy  of  attention  as 
the  silver  issue,  which  is  in  everybody's  mouth."— Pacific 
Churchman,  S.  F. 

"We  go  fur  *  her,  and  say  these  points  are  superior  in  im- 
portance to  all  others."—  Guardian,  (Oroville,  Gal.) 

"A  very  excellent  little  book  on  a  very  important  sub- 
ject."— Buffalo  Courier. 

"  The  danger  to  American  institutions  is  ably  and 
ciearly  discussed."— Burlington  Hawkeye. 

V'A  clever  and  valuable  little  volume,.'— Toledo  Blade. 

"A  very  full  and  interesting  discussion  of  the  immigra- 
tion problem." — Minneapolis  Times. 

The  author  declares,  and  this  will  show  the  boldness  of 
the  book,  that  "  the  Italian  Government,  being  directly 
connected  with  the  immigration  of  the  Mafia,  is  there- 
fore like  the  Government  of  the  United  States  a  particeps 
criminis  to  some  extent  in  the  New  Orleans  outbreak." 
—Cincinnati  Commercial  Tribune. 

"  Most  ably  written  and  forceful  in  argument."— Phila- 
delphia Item. 

"A  plain,  fair,  honest  study  of  the  value  of  immigration. 
The  reader  will  not  have  to  agree  with  all  the  ideas  of  the 
author  to  be  profoundly  interested  in  his  chapters."— Chi- 
cago Inter-Ocean. 

"So  real  have  been  the  abuses  of  our  hospitality  these 
many  years  that  a  multitude  of  people,  and  they  the  clos- 
est observers  and  truest  patriots/will  find  Mr.  Chetwood's 


statements  and  conclusions  none  too  strong."—  Overland 
Monthly. 

"An  elaborate  study  of  the  growing  evil  of  indiscrimi- 
nate immigration,"— Baltimore  American. 

"The  writer  deals  earnestly  and  manfully  with  the  sub- 
ject. His  discussion  of  the  problem  and  of  the  attempts 
hitherto  made  at  its  solution  is  thorough  going.  The 
book  merits  a  wide  circulation  and  careful  reading." — 
Chicago  Interior. 

"The  subject  has  become  one  of  vital  importance.  Mr. 
Chetwood  makes  out  a  very  strong  case  and  calls  for  more 
stringent  legislation."— Richmond  Dispatch. 

"Every  American  who  has  the  welfare  of  his  country  at 
heart  should  read  it."— American  Protestant  (Cincinnati). 

"Some  of  these  days  the  nation  is  going  to  wake  up  to 
the  dangers  of  our  lax  immigration  laws.  It  is  a  question 
both  parties  prefer  to  leave  alone  during  a  campaign,  but 
Immigration  Fallacies  will  attract  attention  anew  to 
this  really  important  subject.  The  book  is  most  compre- 
hensi^e,  and  yet  the  subject  matter  is  contained  in  less 
than  150  pages."— New  York  Press. 

"Mr.  Chetwood  presents  a  stong  and  able  array  of  facts 
against  immigration.  It  appears  that  many  of  our  great 
national  problems,  mormonism,  pauperism,  anarchy,  in- 
temperance, conflict  of  labor  and  capital,  municipal  cor- 
ruption and  misrule,  owe  their  existence  wholly  or  largely 
to  the  character  and  bulk  of  immigration.  The  'friendly' 
Governments  of  Europe  have  for  years  assisted  their  crimi- 
nal classes  to  our  shores,  and  the  Mafian  troubles  at  New 
Orleans  are  instanced  as  an  example  of  the  results.  Mr. 
Chetwood  arraigns  in  no  measured  terms  "  our  unnatural 
laws  of  naturalization."  Their  theory  "was  admirably 
adapted  to  the  date  of  passage,  1802,  but  owing  to  changed 
conditions  they  have  become  an  absurdity  and  an  enor- 
mity."— Detroit  Free  Press. 

11  The  author  deals  with  the  whole  question  in  a  very 
thorough  manner,  taking  into  consideration  not  only  its 
political,  but  also  its  economic  and  social  aspects;  and  he 
justly  contends  that  even  if  the  economic  value  of  immi- 
gration is  all  it  is  claimed  the  true  wealth  of  a  nation  is 
measured  not  by  acreage  or  money,  but  by  the  character 
of  its  people.  He  also  deals  with  the  history  of  the  ques- 
tkm,  and  shows  that  the  views  expressed  by  Washington, 
Jefferson  and  other  Revolutionary  fathers,  are  utterly  op- 
posed to  unrestricted  immigration.  The  author  also 
shows  that  the  evils  of  the  present  system  have  been  in- 
vestigated and  made  manifest  on  several  occasions  in  the 
past,  especially  in  1838, 1845, 1856,  1870  and  1888-9,  but  that 
all  attempts  to  apply  a  remedy  have  been  lamentable  fail- 
ures. The  work  is  undoubtedly  the  most  thoroughgoing 


and  complete  that  has  yet  been  published  on  the  subject! 
and  as  the  question  is  of  vital  moment  not  only  to  the 
nation  as  a  whole,  but  to  every  class  of  the  community,  it 
is  one  well  deserving  of  attentive  study  by  every  voter  in 
the  land.  And  anyone,  whether  voter  or  non-voter,  who 
wishes  to  obtain  a  thorough  knowledge  of  one  of  the  most 
important  and  vital  questions  of  the  day  cannot  do  better 
than  study  the  admirable  summary  of  it  given  in  the  pres- 
ent work."— San  Francisco  Examiner. 

In  similar  vein  to  the  paper  last  quoted  are  notices  of 
the  "San  Francisco  Call,"  '  Boston  Journal,"  "Boston 
Transcript,"  "Brooklyn  Standard,"  "New  Orleans  Pica- 
yune," "  New  York  Voice,"  while  the  book  is  strongly  en- 
dorsed by  the  "Oakland,  Cal.,  Enquirer,"  "Philadelphia 
Church  Standard  "  (Epis.),  "Boston  Pilot "  (B.  C.),  etc.,  etc. 


flfeanila,  ot  flfoonroe  Doctvtne? 


BY 

JOHN  CHETWOOD 

AUTHOR  OF  « IMMIGRATION  FALLACIES" 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

FAGB 

INTRODUCTION,  IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  QUESTION  .  ...  5 
CHAPTER  I.— WHAT  THE  MONROE  DOCTRINE  MEANS  AND 

INVOLVES 9 

"  II. — SOME  THINGS  THE  MONROE  DOCTRINE  ix>i?s 

NOT  MEAN 16 

«*  III. — EUROPE  AS  A  FACTOR  AT  MANILA  .  ...  25 
««  IV. — VITAL  AND  GROWING  IMPORTANCE  OK  TDK 

MONROE  DOCTRINE 35 

«  V. — THE  QUESTIONS  OF  DUTY  AT  MANILA  ...  38 
«  vi. — THE  OPPORTUNITIES  AT  MANILA 45 


PRICE  1O  CENTS 


1C 


< 


Manila,  or  flfeonroe  Doctrine? 


BY 

JOHN  CHETWOOD 

AUTHOR  OF  "  IMMIGRATION  FALLACIES 


OF  THB 

UNIVERSITY 


PUBLISHERS 
ROBERT  LEWIS  WEED  COMPANY 

63   FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK 

/.Sf* 


Copyrighted,  1898,  by 
ROBERT  LFAVIS  WEED  COMPANY 


.<? , 


•mill  ant 
trically 
le  Mon- 
United 
he  sub- 
ihtis  far 
j  and  n 
world, 
is  Doc- 
will  be 
.ie  than 
3lose  of 


F^HILIPPINE  annexation,  the  dominant 
question  of  the  hour,  is  so  diametrically 
opposed  to  the  principles  embodied  in  the  Mon- 
roe Doctrine  that  the  people  of  the  United 
States  should  make  a  careful  study  of  the  sub- 
ject before  abandoning  a  Doctrine  that  thus  far 
has  been  a  rudder  to  the  ship  of  state  and  a 
guarantee  of  good  faith  to  the  whole  world. 
When  the  point  of  departure  from  this  Doc- 
trine is  clearly  understood,  the  question  will  be 
found  to  involve  a  more  momentous  issue  than 
has  engaged  the  public  mind  since  the  close  of 
the  civil  war. 


INTRODUCTION 

Importance  of  the  Question 

IT  is  universally  conceded  that  the  Philippine 
problem  is  The  problem  of  the  Spanish  war. 
But  the  problem  becomes  comparatively  simple 
if  we  decline  annexation,  and  especially,  if  we 
decline  it  out  of  regard  for  the  Monroe  Doc- 
trine. In  such  case  there  remains  to  consider, 
aside  from  requisite  measures  of  reform,  only 
what  we  shall  demand  by  way  of  coaling  or 
naval  stations,  trading  and  tariff  concessions, 
and  commercial  " openings"  along  the  Chinese 
coast  for  relinquishing  territorial  claims  in  the 
neighborhood. 

On  the  other  hand  to  remain  at  Manila  and 
abandon  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  confronts  us 
with  a  most  serious  question,  serious  not  only 
for  the  United  States,  but  for  all  civilized  na- 
tions. Never  until  now  have  we  faltered  in 
allegiance  to  the  Monroe  Doctrine.  It  is  the 
foundation,  it  not  the  corner  stone,  of  the 
country's  foie.gn  policy  since  1823,  and  we 
have  always  ascribed  to  it  our  tranquillity, 
security  and  freedom  from  enormous  military 


taxation,  as  well  as  our  supremacy  in  the 
Western  World.  Less  than  three  }rears  ago  to 
uphold  this  Doctrine  we  were  facing  war  with 
a  foe  far  more  powerful  than  Spain,  and  at  that 
time  the  public  man  who  advocated  yielding  or 
risking  the  Monroe  Doctrine  for  the  sake  of  all 
Australasia,  instead  of,  as  now,  only  ar  small 
fraction  ef  oneAof  its  distant  islands,  would 
have  been  consigned  to  the  obscurity  of  private 

life 

'    h.icL   oec&sj.ffTi   to  .   . 

Havingyybecome   lamiliar  with  the  origin  and 

scope  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  the  writer  has 
been  impressed  by  the  strangely  scanty  refer- 
ences to  it  at  the  present  crisis.  It  is  not  to  be 
expected  that  it  would  receive  consideration 
from  those  that  started  the  petitions  for  annex- 
ation, Chambers  of  Commerce,  Boards  of  Tiade, 
and  similar  bodies  who  naturally  look  at  Ma- 
nila through  commercial  spectacles,  and  thus 
fail  to  discern  the  weightier  matters  of  diplo- 
macy, statesmanship  and  international  law. 
That  the  annexation  press  should  do  likewise 
is  also  natural. 

-ft  On  tke  other  hand  the  attitude  of  the  con- 
servative papers  has  been  puzzling.  A«4  June 
was  well  on  into  its  second  week  before  it  was 
clearly  intimated  in  Congress,  as  well  as  by  a 
very  eminent  jurist,  that  Asiatic  acquisition  in- 
volved a  virtual  repeal  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine. 


Even  up  to  the  present  time  many  conservative 
people  apparently  unregardful  of  the  Monroe 
Doctrine,  seem  satisfied  with  the  lesser  serious 
objections  which  they  urge  to  annexation. 
NwerjJiele&s  the  writer  maintains  that  the 
Monroe  Doctrine  while  the  greatest  is  the 
easiest  to  understand, 3h  fact,  he  believes  the 
vital  and  controlling  issue  to  be  Manila,  or 
Monroe  Doctrine?  He  further  believes  that 
for  the  American  people  to  fullv  understand 
the  issue  new  at  stalre  wtH^result  in  their  re- 
cording a  decisive  verdicfc-against  Manila. 

San  Francisco,  Cal.,  Sept.  15,  1898. 


CHAPTER  1 

What  the   Monroe   Doctrine   Means   and  In- 
volves 

^~ni  &  7~&  Z  \/ 
PHE  Monroe  Doctrine  is^an  application  to 

I  America  of  what  Europe  has  long  called 
"  the  balance  of  power."  In  effect  it  says  to 
the  nations  of  Europe,  "since  we  do  not  meddle 
in  your  hemisphere,  seek  not  to  conquer  or 
colonize  in  ours."  We  run  counter  to  its  spirit 
and  letter  if  we  annex  portions  of  the  Old 
World,  and  at  the  same  time  control  the  desti- 
nies of  the  New.  "  Imperialism  "  could  stretch 
no  further. 

In  this  connection  it  is  worth  our  while  to 
consider  the  scope  and  meaning  of  the  Mon- 
roe Doctrine  to  the  men  who  formulated  it. 
First,  it  will  be  interesting  to  note  that  the 
feature  of  Monroe's  policy  which  lias  caused 
most  controversy,  the  one  forbidding  further 
acquisition  of  American  territory  by  Europe, 
originated  with  John  Quincy  Adams,  Monroe's 
Secretary  of  State,  and  that  the  full  name  of 
the  Monroe  Doctrine  should  be  the  Monroe- 
Adams- Jefferson-Madison  Doctrine. 


10 

For  sometime  before  the  appearance  of  Presi- 
dent Monroe's  message,  our  relations  with 
Russia  had  been  somewhat  disturbed  over  the 
northwest  boundary  disputes,  which  were 
iiually  settled  by  the  purchase  of  Alaska.  At 
Washington  on  July  17,  1823,  Secretary  of 
State  John  Quincy  Adams,  stated  to  Baron 
Tuyl,  Russia's  representative,  "that  we.  should 
assume  distinctly  the  principle  that  the  Amer- 
ican continents  are  no  longer  subjects  for  any 
new  European  colonization  establishments ; '' 
and  this  statement  his  son,  Charles  Francis 
Adams,  has  well  called  "  the  first  hint  of  the 
policy  afterward  known  as  the  Monroe  Doc- 
trine." '  Writing  on  July  2,  1823,  to  Richard 
Rush  and  referring  in  a  different  connection  to 
the  same  matter,  our  then  minister  to  England, 
Mr.  Adams,  observes,  "  the  American  conti- 
nents henceforth  will  no  longer  be  subject  to 
colonization." 2 

Mr.  Adams'  remark  was  caused  by  the  newly 
formed  coalition  of  the  powers  of  Russia,  Aus- 
tria and  Prussia  in  what  was  known  as  the 
Holy  Alliance.  These  powers  were  just  then 
apprehensive  of  the  spread  of  democratic  ideas, 

1  Charles  F.  Adams'    Memoirs  of   J.    Q.    Adams,  Vol.   6, 
page  163,  and  note. 

2  The   Monroe   Doctrine,    by   Geo.   F.   Tucker,    Chap.    2? 
page  13. 


11 

and  of  the  popular  uprisings  all  over  the  world 
that  seemed  to  menace  their  systems  of  govern- 
ment. For  instance,  revolutions  were  break- 
ing out  in  Spain  and  Portugal,  and  the  Spanish 
colonies  in  America  had  proclaimed  and  practi- 
cally established  their  independence.  The 
powers  deputed  to  France  the  task  of  "  restor- 
ing order "  in  Spain,  and  at  the  Congress  of 
Verona,  in  1822,  the  "  Holy  Alliance  "  seriously 
discussed  bringing  back  to  their  allegiance  the 
revolted  colonies  of  Spain. 

Then,  at  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  Canning, 
prime  minister  of  England,  the  American  pres- 
ident proclaimed  his  celebrated  Doctrine. 
Meant  to  prevent  interference  by  the  European 
monarchies  with  the  republics  of  America  or 
their  institutions,  it  was  entirely  successful.  In 
embodying  the  idea  designed  to  bar  Europe 
from  further  extension  of  territory  in  America, 
the  president  went  further  than  England  wished 
— although  not  further  than  the  American  peo- 
ple have  seemed  to  approve  in  the  Venezuelan 
dispute. 

Before  preparing  his  message,  Monroe  con- 
sulted his  predecessors  in  office,  Madison  and 
Jefferson.  Mr.  Madison,  on  October  80,  1823, 
in  a  letter  to  President  Monroe  refers  to  the 
dangers  threatening,  through  the  Holy  Alliance, 
our  neighbors  on  the  south  ;  to  our  interest  in, 


12 

and  sympathy  with  their  republican  institu- 
tions ;  and  to  "  the  consequences  threatened  by 
a  command  of  their  resources  by  the  great 
powers  ", — considerations  which  "  call  for  our 
efforts  to  defeat  the  meditated  crusade."  l  Mr. 
Jefferson  was  even  more  explicit.  In  replying 
to  the  president,  he  says:  "  The  question  pre- 
sented by  the  letter  you  have  sent  me  is  the 
most  momentous  which  has  ever  been  offered 
to  my  contemplation,  since  that  of  Independ- 
ence. That  made  us  a  nation,  this  sets  our 
compass  and  points  the  course  we  are  to  steer 
through  the  ocean  of  time  opening  for  us.  .  . 
Our  first  and  fundamental  maxim  should 
be  never  to  entangle  ourselves  in  the  broils  of 
Europe.  Our  second,  never  to  suffer  Europe 
to  intermeddle  in  cis-Atlantic  affairs.  America, 
north  and  south,  has  a  set  of  interests  distinct 
from  those  of  Europe  and  peculiarly  her  own. 
She  should  therefore  have  a  system  of  her  own 
separate  and  distinct  from  that  of  Europe."1 

Thus  fortified  by  able  elktwielfore  the  presi- 
dent addressed  to  Congress  the  document  of 
December  2,  1823.  In  it  he  refers  to  the  nego- 
tiations pending  with  Russia  and  Great  Britain 

1  Letters  and  Writings  of  James  Madison,  Vol.   3,  page 
339. 

2  Writings  of  Jefferson,  published  by  order  of  Congress, 
Vol.  8,  page  315. 


13 

for  the  amicable  adjustment  of  their  interests 
to  ours  on  the  northwest  boundaries  of  the 
continent,  and  adds :  "  In  the  discussion  to 
which  these  interests  have  given  rise,  and  in 
the  arrangements  by  which  they  may  be  ter- 
minated, the  occasion  has  been  judged  proper 
for  asserting  as  a  principle  in  which  the  rights 
and  interests  of  the  United  States  are  involved, 
that  the  American  continents  by  the  free  and 
independent  condition  which  they  have  assumed 
and  maintained,  are  henceforth  not  to  be  con- 
sidered as  subjects  for  future  colonization  by 
any  European  power." 

Toward  the  close  of  the  message  the  presi- 
dent refers  to  the  popular  agitations  in  Spain 
and  Portugal,  as  to  agitations  on  which  we  look 
with  interest  and  sympathy,  but  without  any 
disposition  to  interfere,  for  he  remarks:  "In 
the  wars  of  the  European  powers,  in  matters 
relating  to  themselves,  we  have  never  taken 
any  part,  nor  does  it  comport  with  our  interest 
to  do  so."  But — "  with  the  movements  in  this 
hemisphere,  we  are  of  necessity  more  immedi- 
ately connected.  .  .  .  We  owe  it  there- 
fore to  candor  and  to  the  amicable  relations 
existing  between  the  United  States  and  these 
powers,  to  declare  that  we  should  consider  any 
attempt  on  their  part  to  extend  their  system  to 
any  portion  of  this  hemisphere  as  dangerous  to 


14 

our  peace  and  safety.  With  the  existing  col- 
onies or  dependencies  of  any  European  power 
we  have  riot  interfered  and  shall  not  interfere." 
And  as  to  the  American  states  which  had  de- 
clared their  independence  and  been  recognized 
by  us,  "we  could  not  view  any  interposition 
for  the  purpose  of  oppressing  them  for  controll- 
ing their  destiny  by  any  European  power,  in 
any  other  light  than  as  the  manifestation  of 
an  unfriendly  disposition  toward  the  United 
States."  He  afterward  repeats  that  our  policy 
has  been,  and  is,  "not  to  interfere  in  the  in- 
ternal concerns  of  Europe,"  but  as  to  this  con- 
tinent it  is  wholly  different.  European  political 
systems  cannot  be  extended  "  to  any  portion 
of  either  continent  without  endangering  our 
peace  and  happiness."  Reverting  to  the  sub- 
ject in  his  message  of  December  7,  1824,  the 
president  states :  "  It  is  impossible  for  the 
European  governments  to  interfere  in  the  con- 
cerns of  our  neighbors  without  affecting  us." l 

There  are  two  propositions  that  stand  out 
distinctly  from  the  state  documents  just 
quoted.  One,  is  that  the  powers  are  no  longer 
to  interfere  or  to  extend  their  holdings  in  our 
sphere,  or  hemisphere ;  the  other,  is  that  we 
disclaim  the  thought  or  intention  of  extend- 

1  Statesman's  Manual,  by  Edwin  Williams,  Vol.  1,  pp. 
452-3,  460-1  and  476. 


IS 

ing  our  possessions  in  theirs.  In  view  of 
the  language  of  the  message  and  of  its  con- 
text, it  is  difficult  to  understand  why  Amer- 
icans of  learning  and  ability  should  dispute 
eitke-r  clause  el  the  first  proposition,  which 
they  do  when  they  admit  that  Europe  is  for- 
bidden to  overturn  any  American  government, 
but  not  that  Europe  is  restrained  from  enlarg- 
ing her  holdings  on  this  continent. 

^  of  tbe  first 


stopped  at  this  point,  we  might  in  answer 
merely  refer  them  to  the  foregoing  quotations. 
But  they  go  even  further,  and  denying  our 
right  or  need  to  invoke  against  Europe  the 
principle  of  non-extension  on  this  hemisphere, 
open  the  way  to  utter  annihilation  of  the  Mon- 
roe Doctrine  by  destroying  the  moral  basis 
upon  which  it  stands.  For  the  Monroe  Doc- 
trine ceases  to  be  a  Doctrine  of  equity  and  jus- 
tice if  while  continuing  to  enforce  it  for  Amer- 
ican interest  in  the  New  World,  we  do  not  con- 
tinue to  refrain  from  interfering  with  European 
interests,  that  is  with  u  the  balance  of  power," 
in  the  Old  World. 

For  instance,  we  enforced  the  Monroe  Doc- 
trine in  the  Venezuelan  affair.  A  waste  of 
water  and  jungle  and  mining  land  was  in  dis- 
pute ;  England  was  pushing  forward  her  bor- 
ders and  to  all  appearance  had  greatly  en- 


16 

larged  them.  The  intrinsic  value  of  the  soil  may 
have  been  little,  perhaps  much  less  than  was 
claimed.  But  the  principle  involved  was  very 
important.  Under  the  guise  of  boundary  con- 
tests the  foreign  powers  can  extend  their  pos- 
sessions on  thaUcontinentJ  almost  indefinitely, 
and  without  effectual  resistance,  unless  from  us. 
The  appetite  for  land,  once  acquired,  is  hard  to 
satisfy,  as  we  ourselves  begin  to  realize.  It 
has  to  be  checked  at  once,  and  this  country 
with  a  true  instinct,  ranged  itself  naturally  and 
rightfully  beside  the  president  in  the  Venezuela 
difference. 

The  second  prominent  point  in  Monroe's 
message,  disavowing  any  intent  to  interfere  in 
European  affairs  is  so  important  as  to  belong  to 
a  new  chapter. 


CHAPTER  II 

Some  Things  the  Monroe  Doctrine  does  net 
Mean 

IN   saying  "  we  have  .never  taken  part  in  mat- 
ters relating  to  the  European  powers,"  and 
"our  policy   is  not  to  interfere  with  their  con- 
cerns," President  Monroe  embodied  the  thought 
if  not  the  words  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  "  our  first 


17 

and  fundamental  maxim  should*  be  never  to 
entangle  ourselves  in  the  broils  of  Europe." 
This  is  quite  plainly  the  meaning  of  President 
Monroe's  message,  and  applies  directly  to  the 
situation  of  affairs  in  the  late  Spanish  war. 

Had  we  carried  that  war  into  Europe  or 
Northern  Africa,  as  was  more  than  once  pro- 
posed, should  we  have  been  allowed  a  free  hand 
there  ?  We  might  have  destroyed  Spanish 
ships,  and  blockaded  or  bombarded  Spanish 
ports,  but  it  is  certain  the  powers  would  have 
prevented  any  annexation  of  Spanish  territory. 
Such  an  annexation  would  have  given  the 
United  States  fortified  outposts  on  the  soil  of 
Europe  which,  in  event  of  war  with  any  foreign 
nation  could  be  used  as  a  base  of  attack. 

Since  the  time  of  Monroe,  in  fact  from  the 
days  of  Washington,  we  have  resisted  every  in- 
ducement or  temptation  to  assume  the  conquer- 
ing, menacing,  undemocratic  attitude  involved 
in  such  a  plan  of  campaign,  though  it  has  been 
gravely  and  frequently  urged  by  the  more  vio- 
lent organs  of  annexation. 

Any  attempt  of  the  United  States  to  grasp 
European  soil  would  at  once  upset  the  delicate 
equilibrium  of  that  continent,  and  be  resented 
as  insufferable  aggression^  -a^d  would  resemble 
an  effort  by  Germany  or  Russia  to  appropriate 
the  Island  of  Cuba.  In  the  late  war  if  either 


18 

of  these  nations  had  been  opposed  to  Spain,  she 
might  have  destroyed  Spanish  shipping  and 
blockaded  Cuban  ports  or  seized  and  occupied 
them  temporarily.  But  any  attempt  to  annex 
the  island  and  substitute  for  decadent  Spain  a 
strong  military  power  at  our  very  doors  would 
have  aroused  in  us  the  instincts  of  self-protec- 
tion. We  would  have  reminded  the  victorious 
power,  or  invoked  the  Monroe  Doctrine  to  re- 
mind her,  that  we  had  always  confined  our 
operations  to  our  own  hemisphere  and  had  an- 
nounced to  the  great  powers  of  the  other  hem- 
isphere that  they  must  follow  our  example. 
Hitherto  they  have  followed  our  example  with 

some  reluctance,  kn-i  if  we  invade  their  hemis- 

~ 


i  4.1  c    A    •     i, 

phere  on  the  coast  or  Asia  h  a  VeTW  e^a  n  y  ri 

t 


- 
have  com  mil  tod  ourselves  - 


Of  course  at  Manila  we  do  not  menace  the 
stability  of  the  powers  as  directly  as  we  should 
at  Ceuta  or  Cadiz  ;  still,  it  must  be  remembered 
that  Europe  and  Asia  are  not  only  in  the  same 
hemisphere  but  are  virtually  one  continent. 
Even  in  the  early  days  of  the  century  Europe 
had  projected  itself  at  more  than  one  point  into 
Asia.  Now  with  Russia  ruling  all  the  North, 
England  mistress  of  a  greatly  widened  India, 
France  and  Germany,  England,  Holland  and 


19 

Spain  holding  vast  provinces  or  islands  along 
the  eastern  or  southeastern  coasts,  the  vast 
continent  of  Asia  has  practically  become  the 
annex  of  Europe. 

At  the  Philippines  we  are  in  a  nest  of  Euro 
pean  or  Japanese  dependencies,  with  England 
and  Holland  to  the  south,  France  on  the  main- 
land opposite,  Germany  and  England  on  the 
northwest,  and  the  countries  of  Russia  and 
Japan  beyond.  Such  are  the  commercial, 
strategic  and  political  advantages  of  the  group 
that  their  transfer  to  any  one  of  the  rival 
powers,  or  their  absorption  by  a  strong  new 
power  will  unquestionably  disturb  the  equilib- 
rium of  European  [zed  Asia.  While  neither 
Germany,  Holland,  France  nor  Russia  would 
be  affected  by  our  annexing  the  Philippines  as 
directly  as  they  would  be  affected  by  our  in- 
vasion of  Spain  or  Morocco,  why  should  we 
expect  them  to  limit  their  objections  to  us  as  a 
neighbor  in  Europe  only?  We  do  not  restrict 
the  operation  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  to  the 
near-by  regions  of  Cuba  or  Venezuela  ;  but  ex- 
tend it  all  the  way  to  Cape  Horn.  And  the 
latter  is  practically  as  remote  from  our  territory 
on  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  as  Cochin-China  is  from 
Paris,  or  Kao-Chang  from  Berlin.  Moreover 
we  own  no  territory  near  Cape  Horn  to  which 
French,  German  or  Italian  colonies  would  be 


20 

near  neighbors,  while  we  shall  become  a  neigh- 
bor to  colonies  of  these  powers  by  remaining  at 
Manila. 

It  hardly  seems  needful  to  argue  further  the 
inconsistency  of  trying  to  retain  both  Manila 
and  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  and  it  is  becoming  a 
matter  of  no  small  interest  to  ask  what  Europe 
will  have  to  say  on  the  subject.  One  of  the 
powers,  however,  holds  that  we  have  already 
violated  the  Doctrine  by  taking  Porto  Rico  and 
Hawaii.  This  assertion  we  cannot  afford  to  ig- 
nore. For  if  we  have  already  broken  our  tra- 
ditional policy,  and  if  that  policy  was  the  only 
thing  that  stood  between  us  and  Manila,  we 
might  as  well  take  up  our  march  to  empire. 
Indeed  if  we  have  surrendered,  or  intend  to  sur- 
render, our  control  of  the  American  continents, 
looking  at  the  matter  from  a  commercial  stand- 
point, in  return  we  ought  not  to  be  satisfied 
with  anything  less  than  a  continent,  arid  we 
ought  to  set  about  securing  it  at  once.  When 
it  is  understood  that  the  Monroe  Doctrine  is 
dead,  and  that  the  West  Indies  and  South  and 
Central  America  are  open  to  the  powers,  as  a 
beginning  we  should  immediately  join  in  and  se- 
cure our  slice  of  China. 

However,  the  part  of  the  message  quoted 
shows  that,  so  far,  we  have  not  broken  the  Doc- 
trine in  the  smallest  degree.  That  Doctrine  for- 


21 

bids  Europe  to  conquer  or  annex  in  this  hem- 
sphere  for  fear  of  disturbing  its,  and  our  equi- 
librium, and  it  inferentially  pledges  this  coun- 
try to  respect  the  equilibrium  of  the  other  hem- 
isphere. Europe  could  not  be  injured  by  any 
expansion  of  ours  over  here  unless  we  annexed 
her  territory,  and  she  would  not  be  endangered 
by  that.  In  encroaching  on  any  of  our  neigh- 
bors we  would  have  to  reckon  with  them  alone, 
though  of  course,  in  acting  unjustly  we  should 
receive  and  deserve  the  reproach  of  mankind. 

From  England  came  the  suggestion  that  we 
have  already  broken  the  Monroe  Doctrine. 
Though  our  recently  improved  relations  with 
that  power  are  one  of  the  good  results  of  the 
war,  it  must  be  carefully  noted  at  this  juncture 
that  nothing  would  please  Great  Britain  more 
than  to  have  us  as  a  neighbor  in  the  far  East. 
She  stands  there  struggling  to  hold  her  own 
against  Russia  and  France,  if  not  Germany  also, 
and  without  a  single  friend,  unless  it  be  Japan. 
Naturally  she  would  welcome  another  friend, 
and  be  glad  to  form  an  "  alliance."  And  it  must 
be  confessed  that  if  we  hold  territory  there  we 
must  expect  rivals  and  enemies,  and  would 
therefore  need  friends  ourselves.  The  "en- 
tangling alliance"  so  deprecated  .bv  Washing- 
ton, may  prove  a  necessity.  It  \vould  be  only  a 
question  of  time. 


The  English  themselves,  to  do  them  justice, 
are  perfectly  frank  in  this  matter.  The  Specta- 
tor of  July  16,  1898,  dwells  on  the  continental 
dislike  of  America,  founded,  like  its  hatred  of 
England,  on  the  progress  and  comparative  pros- 
perity of  the  two  Anglo-Saxon  powers.  Europe 
classes  the  two  together,  says  The  Spectator,  and 
puts  them  in  the  same  boat, — where,  the  infer- 
ence is,  they  naturally  belong. 

The  Saturday  Review  of  the  same  date  asks : 
"Now  how  will  the  advent  of  the  new  power 
affect  the  Eastern  equilibrium  ?  "  The  question 
is  answered  thus :  "  From  the  selfish  British 
point  of  view  we  hope  that  the  Americans  will 
take  both  the  Canaries  and  the  Philippines,— 
and  if  they  wished  a  port  on  the  coast  of  China 
besides,  they  should  have  our  help  in  getting  it. 
The  weary  Titan  that  Matthew  Arnold  spoke 
of,  with  every  muscle  strained  by  the  weight  of 
empire,  challenged  on  this  side  and  on  that  by 
new  competitors,  menaced  now  and  then  by  a 
combination  of  envious  enemies,  suddenly  now 
finds  standing  at  his  side  a  stalwart  son,  who, 
though  he  has  his  own  place  in  the  world,  and 
his  own  ambitions,  yet  seems  inclined  to  say 
that  the  old  Titan  shall  always  have  at  least  a 
fair  field,  and  if  the  worse  comes  to  the  worst, 
some  little  favor.  And  that  is  the  way  we 
British  feel  about  America." 


23 

This  is  instructive  as  well  as  interesting. 
Equally  interesting,  perhaps,  if  not  quite  so  in- 
structive, will  be  a  quotation  from  a  letter  in 
the  New  York  Tribune  of  August  2, 1898,  from 
its  London  correspondent  on  "  Misconceptions 
About  Monroeism."  "English  writers,"  says 
the  correspondent,  "assume  that  the  Monroe 
Doctrine  has  been  abandoned  in  the  present 
conflict  with  Spain.  An  expression  I  constantly 
hear  in  conversation  and  read  in  print  is  '  Mon- 
roeism is  dead.'  The  misconception  arises  from 
confounding  the  Washington  Farewell  Address 
with  the  complement  of  it  in  the  Monroe  Doc- 
trine. The  Washington  principle  was  that 
Americans  must  remain  out  of  European  alli- 
ances and  entanglements."  The  Monroe  prin- 
ciple was  that  Europeans  must  keep  their  hands 
off  the  American  continent,  retaining  such  pos- 
sessions as  they  already  held  but  not  enlarging 
their  colonial  holdings  and  conquests. 

The  United  States  in  waging  war  with  Spain 
for  the  deliverance  of  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico 
from  Spanish  rule  only  recognized  what  the 
civilized  world  has  acknowledged,  namely  :  that 
Spain  is  no  longer  able  to  care  for  her  colonial 
possessions.  But  the  essential  principle  of  Mon- 
roeism that  European  powers  are  not  to  enlarge 
their  domain  in  the  Western  Hemisphere  has 
not  been  renounced  or  compromised.  Monroe- 


24 

ism  is  vitalized  by  the  enlargement  of  Ameri- 
can influence  in  the  West  Indies.  The  writer 
in  the  New  York  Tribune  adds :  u  that  if  the 
powers  were  to  assume  the  death  of  Monroe- 
ism they  would  speedily  be  convinced  of  its 
vitality,"  and  then  continues,  "  The  invasion 
and  occupation  of  the  Philippines  imply  renun- 
ciation of  the  Washington  doctrine  of  non-in- 
tervention in  European  affairs.  This  is  what 
English  writers  have  really  in  mind  when  they 
speak  of  repudiation  of  Monroeism  two  years 
after  the  Venezuela  question  was  raised  in  an 
aggressive  form.  If  the  Americans  proclaim  a 
protectorate  in  that  quarter  they  will  enter 
upon  a  career  of  expansion  which  may  menace 
European  interests  and  draw  them  into  en-tan- 
glements  with  foreign  Powers.  The  Monroe 
Doctrine  will  not  be  affected  by  the  settlement 
of  the  Philippine  question.  The  Washington 
Doctrine  is  at  stake  in  the  South  Seas  and  may 
be  fatally  compromised  if  the  Philippines  are 
retained  as  a  permanent  American  depend- 
ency." 

We  may  entirely  agree  with  the  writer  just 
quoted  that  the  Monroe  Doctrine  is  in  no  way 
impaired  but  "  vitalized  "  by  any  of  our  acquisi- 
tions in  this  Hemisphere.  But  we  must  part 
company  with  him  in  one  or  two  places  where 
we  have  ventured  to  introduce  italics.  The 


25 

Washington  Farewell  Address  Doctrine  is 
called  the  "  complement  "  of  the  Monroe  Doc- 
trine. But  as  the  theory  of  our  non-interven- 
tion in  European  entanglements  runs  through 
both,  the  address  should  be  called  not  merely 
the  "  complement "  but  the  foundation  of  the 
Monroe  Doctrine.  They  are  virtually  the  same 
thing  where  the  annexation  of  Asia  is  con- 
cerned. The  correspondent  is  therefore  as  cor- 
rect in  saying  that  the  Washington  Doctrine 
will  be  fatally  compromised  by  retaining  Manila 
as  he  is  incorrect  in  holding  that  the  Monroe 
Doctrine  will  not  be. 

It  will  also  be  noted  that  the  correspondent 
is  one  of  the  very  large  and  apparently  grow- 
ing number  of  people  who  would  stoutly  up- 
hold the  Monroe  Doctrine  in  this  Hemisphere 
but  would  refuse  Europe  a  right  to  uphold  a 
similar  doctrine  at  Manila.  Let  us  see  how 
Europe  is  likely  to  regard  so  one-sided  a 
theory. 


CHAPTER  III 

Europe  as  a  Factor  at  Manila 

IT  was  right  to  insist  that  the  powers  should 
observe  all  the  rules  of  neutrality  and  the 
usages  of  warfare  while  we  were  engaged  with 


26 

Spain  on  the  coast  of  Asia.  Our  national  dig- 
nity and  self-respect  demanded  that  our  cam- 
paign there  should  not  be  hampered  in  any 
way.  As  a  war  measure  we  had  every  right  to 
bombard  or  capture  Manila  or  any  or  the  whole 
of  the  Philippine  Archipelago.  We  had,  and 
have  the  right  to  retain  possession  of  the  group 
in  whole,  or  in  part,  pending  the  conclusion  of 
a  treaty  of  peace  and  perhaps  to  remain  in  pos- 
session for  a  reasonable  period  afterward,  either 
to  enforce  some  conditions  of  the  treaty  of 
peace  or  to  restore  law  and  order. 

Possession,  however,  being  nine  points  in  law, 
is  nine  and  a  half  points  in  war,  and  the  powers 
may  be  expected  before  very  long  to  inquire 
our  ultimate  intentions.  If  the  reasoning  of  the 
preceding  chapters  is  sound,  we  may  expect 
that  they  will  not  only  ask  our  intentions,  but 
perhaps  make  manifest  their  own.  To  preserve 
"the  balance  of  power/'  they  may  insist  upon 
a  u  Mft^SW TDoc trine  of  the  East  "  as  an  offset 
to  our  "  Monroe  Doctrine  of  the  West." 

There  are  indications  that  they  are  already 
preparing  to  do  so.  Press  dispatches  of  July 
15,  1898,  contained  this  item  sent  from  Paris 
July  14,  and  apparently  "  inspired":  "The 
Matin  has  received,  from  its  London  corre- 
spondent, who  has  unusual  sources  of  informa- 
tion, a  dispatch  in  which  he  says  the  Chancel- 


27 

lories  of  the  powers  are  now  discussing  the 
question  of  the  eventual  intervention  of  powers 
in  the  Philippines.  Germany  would  prefer 
maintenance  of  the  status  quo,  but  if,  as  a  con- 
sequence of  the  war,  Spanish  sovereignty  disap- 
pears American  sovereignty  must  not  he  its 
successor.  An  international  agreement  will  be 
established,  and  the  powers  interested  will  each 
be  called  on  to  protect  its  own  interests.  This 
is  the  logical  outcome  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  the 
principle  of  which  will  be  employed  by  Europe  to 
protect  itself  against  American  interference" 

We  emphasize  the  last  few  lines  of  the  quo- 
tation because  although  they  appeared  in  the 
associated  press  dispatches  of  the  American 
papers,  many  of  the  latter  have  industriously 
avoided  notice  of  the  dispatch  in  their  editorial 
columns.  When  they  have  brought  themselves 
to  discuss  the  Philippine  problem  with  any  re- 
gard to  the  Monroe  Doctrine  at  all,  it  has  been 
their  usual  custom  briefly  to  assert : 

1.  That  the  Monroe  Doctrine  does  not  ap- 
ply— which  is  wholly  untenable; 

2.  T.hat  it  is  obsolete,  as  we  are  now  too 
strong  to  be  injured  by  any  conquest  of  South 
or  Central  America — which  may  possibly  find 
favor  abroad,  but  is   unlikely  to  find  favor  at 
home,   or  even  in  England  so    soon  after  the 
Venezuela  affair ; 


28 

3.  That  WE  do  not  consider  that  it  applies 
—which  must  mean  that  we  are  prepared  to 
pose  before  the  world,  carrying  Manila  on  one 
shoulder  and  the  Monroe  Doctrine  on  the 
other, 


¥etThe  point  is  not  how  inconsistent  ive  may 
be  in  Fegai*d  teA  Manila  and  the  Monroe  Doc- 
trine, but  as  to  what  other  nations  may  think 
about  ew  i-neoftsistcnoy  it.  If  they  differ  with 
us,  sooner  or  later  there  will  be  a  conflict 
which  will  cost  us  no  matter  how  it  ends,  the 
full  value  of  the  Philippines  many  times  multi- 
plied. 

If  we  can  only  bring  ourselves  to  look  at  the 
situation  from  a  European  standpoint  we  shall 
see  that  the  prospect  of  such  a  conflict  is  by  no 
means  remote.  In  the  June  number  of  Har- 
per's Monthly,  "  Cathay  "  writes  :  "  It  is  a 
favorite  commonplace  to  say  that  the  world  is 
growing  very  small,  but,  few  people,  perhaps, 
realize  the  deadly  earnest  which  underlies  that 
commonplace.  For  it  is  within  the  limits  of 
this  small  world  of  ours  that  the  nations  of  the 
earth  must  live  and  move  and  have  their  being; 
and  in  the  same  proportion  as  with  the  growing 
requirements  of  modern  civilization  each  nation 
needs  more  elbow  room  for  itself,  the  area  within 
which  it  can  hope  to  find  that  elbow  room  is 
being  daily  and  steadily  exhausted.  The  popu- 


latlon  of  the  civilized  portions  of  the  earth  ha£ 
increased  by  leaps  and  bounds — that  of  the 
British  Isles  for  instance,  from  sixteen  to  forty 
millions  during  the  course  of  the  present  cen- 
tury, that  of  the  states  which  now  form  the 
German  Empire  from  twenty-four  to  fifty  mil- 
lions, that  of  the  United  States  from  six  to 
seventy  millions — the  average  duration  of  life 
has  increased,  and  the  progress  of  science  and 
the  more  humane  tendency  of  legislation  com- 
bine to  preserve  many  lives  which  from  the 
purely  economic  point  of  view  are  rather  a  bur- 
den than  a  benefit  to  the  community.  At  the 
same  time  the  living  wage,  the  standard  of  lux- 
ury, the  proportion  of  unproductive  to  produc- 
tive expenditure,  have  risen  no  less  rapidly  in 
every  class  of  society. 

41  To  satisfy  these  growing  needs  every  civi- 
lized nation  has  been  driven  to  work  at  a  pres- 
sure unknown  to  former  generations.  Indus- 
trial activity  and  commercial  enterprise  have 
assumed  gigantic  developments.  The  marvel- 
ous discoveries  of  science  have  enabled  the  civ- 
ilized world  to  multiply  and  intensify  its  pow- 
ers of  production  to  an  almost  unlimited  ex- 
tent. But  to  produce  is  one  thing,  and  to  dis- 
pose of  what  is  produced  is  another.  The 
powers  of  production  of  the  civilized  world  have 
outstripped  its  powers  of  consumption,  and 


30 

congestion  is  only  averted  by  the  continuous 
opening  up  of  new  markets  and  new  fields  of 
enterprise  in  those  portions  of  the  earth  where 
the  resources  of  nature  and  the  energies  of  man 
still  lie  dormant.  Industry,  in  the  widest  sense 
of  the  term,  is,  to-day,  the  breath  of  the  social 
organism  throughout  the  civilized  world,  and 
the  cry  for  more  trade  —  more  markets  —  is  as 
imperative  as  the  cry  of  the  human  organism 
for  more  air  when  threatened  with  suffocation." 
This  admirable  summary  of  the  situation 
puts  in  quite  a  different  light  what  we  have 
been  prone  to  call  the  "earth  hunger"  of  our 
less  favored  European  rivals.  Their  methods 
of  opening  new  channels  of  trade  or  outlets  to 
surplus  population  have  no  doubt  often  de- 
served criticism.  /Joome  allowance  should  be 
made  for  the  peculiar  conditions"  and  obstacles 
with  which  the  Old  World  is  obliged  to  struggle. 
There  is  no  standing  still;  the  great  powers 
must  necessarily  expand  or  retrograde.  Spain 
strikingly  illustrates  this  assertion  ;  -«g4e-  1402- 


The  efforts  of  the  powers  to  open  and 
develop  new  markets,  new  colonies,  are  really 
efforts  to  avert  decay  and  eventual  destruction. 
And  on  the  success  of  such  efforts  rests  their 
fitness  to  survive. 

To   complete   the    thought  we    turn   again  to 


3t 

"Cathay":  "In  this  tremendous  competition 
the  Anglo-Saxon  race  has,  by  a  singular  combi- 
nation of  energy  and  foresight  and  good 'for- 
tune, secured  a  splendid  start.  Great  Britain 
has  built  up  for  herself  a  world-wide  colonial 
empire ;  the  United  States,  stretching  from 
ocean  to  ocean  across  one  of  the  most  favored 
regions  of  the  earth,  overshadows  a  whole  con- 
tinent. It  is  not,  after  all,  unnatural  that 
other  nations,  having  lagged  behind  in  the  race, 
should  resent  the  start  we  have  obtained,  and 
that  when  the  moment  seems  to  have  arrived 
for  finally  opening  up  the  greatest  and  richest 
field  "  (referring  to  China  but  these  words  apply 
both  to  China  and  South  America)  "which  the 
world  still  holds  in  reserve,  they  should  be  in- 
clined to  cry  to  us:  'hands  off!  You  have  al- 
ready more  than  your  fair  share.  It  is  our  turn 
now  to  help  ourselves,  and  to  redress  the 
balance  in  our  favor.'  The  growing  jealousy 
with  which  both  branches  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
race  are  regarded  by  the  leading  powers  of  the 
European  continent  is,  at  any  rate,  a  fact  which 
has  to  be  reckoned  with. 

"  France,  thoroughly  awakened  at  last  to  the 
value  of  the  colonial  empire  she  once  threw 
away,  has  devoted  no  small  part  of  her  energies 
throughout  this  century,  and  especially  during 
its  last  decades,  to  repairing  her  blunders  of 


32 

the  last  century.  Germany,  whose  rapid  trans- 
formation from  an  agricultural  to  an  industrial 
state  of  the  first  rank  has  been  a  far  more 
momentous  event  than  her  political  reconstruc- 
tion, is  pressing  on  in  the  same  course  with  the 
feverish  haste  of  a  belated  traveler.  Slowly 
but  steadily,  with  the  resistless  momentum  of 
its  massive  power,  the  mysterious  empire  of  the 
Tsar  moulds  its  policy  of  territorial  expansion 
to  new  shapes  under  the  influence  of  its  silent 
development.  And  moving  thus  on  parallel 
lines,  they  combine  to  curse  the  4  selfishness '  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  which  bars  their  progress 
by  the  indefeasible  right  of  prior  occupancy." 

Let  us  put  this  argument  to  the  proof  upon 
the  map  of  the  Globe.  Study  of  it  will  show 
that  less  favored  nations  have  reasons  to  fear 
and  to  envy  the  Anglo-Saxon.  Great  Britain 
has  in  her  colonial  system  embraced  all  the  best 
temperate  regions  outside  of  Europe  and  Amer- 
ica, and  has  millions  of  hardy  subjects  on  the 
latter  continent.  Almost  everywhere  in  the 
Old  World  the  other  powers  see  the  earth  pre- 
empted or  preoccupied  by  England.  Turning 
their  gaze  this  way,  they  again  behold  Great 
Britain  ruling  to  the  north,  and  the  other  great 
Anglo-Saxon  nation  in  possession  of  the  best 
and  largest  portion  of  North  America. 

More  than  that,  we  actually  u  overshadow " 


33 

the  continent,  as  "Cathay"  has  said.  Euro, 
pean  powers  though  covetous  of  the  vast  and 
fertile  regions  embraced  in  South  America, 
acknowledge  our  dominance  and  therefore  re- 
spect our  dictum  that  no  European  power  shall 
acquire  a  foothold  in  the  Americas. 

In  the  eyes  of  Europe  our  nation  has  already 
assumed  a  selfish  and  domineering  attitude. 
When  Germany  thought  of  buying  Cuba  in 
1885,  and  broached  the  subject  to  the  goyern- 
ment  at  Washington,  she  was  informeu^that  the 
cloak  of  the  Monroe  Doetrine  covered  botli 
continents,  from  the  North  Pole  to  Cape  Horn. 
Bismarck  then  said,  "  the  Monroe  Doctrine  is 
a  doctrine  of  insolence."  While  complement- 
ing our  other  doctrine^wliicn  respects  u  the  bal- 
ance of  power"  in  the  Old  World,  the  Monroe 
Doctrine  is  not  insolent..  But  itNvoula  Be  in- 
solent were  we  to  cfaimJfie  rignt  to  "  balance 
of  power  "  angftl^^WGGtcrn77Hcrni3pncrc,  -aftd 
'  changfcg  our  shield  for  a  sword,  were  to4n-fee^ 
wit  ft"  t/ne  Dt 


Whatever  the  European  powers  may  have  to 
say  on  this  subject,  let  us  hope  will  be  said  be- 
fore very  long — before  we  have  finally  com- 
mitted ourselves  to  the  annexation  of  Manila. 
So  far  as  the  writer  of  this  pamphlet  knows, 
from  July  14,  1898,  when  the  article  quoted 


from   on   page   26   appeared  in  the  Matin,  little    v/ 
has  been  heard  of  a  Monroe  Doctrine  for  Asia. 
Perhaps  there  is  no  special  significance  in  this 

silence.     But  then  again  it  may  mean  that  the 

at  present*  J. 

powers  are^unable  to  form  a  satisfactory  league 

among  themselves,  or  that  they  have  already 
done  so,  and  that  what  they  really  desire  and 
are  waiting  for,  is  to  see  us  take  a  very  small 
slice  of  Asia,  and  in  this  act  surrender  the  con- 
trol of  America.  In  either  case  is  it  not  well 
for  us  to  move  with  exceeding  great  care  at  this 
crisis  in  the.  history  of  two  hemispheres?  Are 
we  110  t^a^e^e4a^e~  with  4he-qttss&^  shall  we 
suffer  the  Monroe  Doctrine  to  continue  a  living 
Doctrine,  or  shall  we  do  it  to  death  with  our 
own  hands? 

"  If  we  allowed  it  to  be  known  that  we  should 
not  object  to  the  colonization  of  South  Amer- 
ica by  the  powers  of  Europe  it  would  not  be 
five  years  before  the  whole  continent  was  di- 
vided."' This  quotation  is  from  a  recent  edi- 
torial in  a  leading  journal  of  the  Pacific  Coast, 
a_staunch  upholder  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine. 
Yen-  -ask?  "  Of  course,^jhis  patriotic  journal  ad- 
vocates nothing  that  would  jeopardize  the  Doc- 
trines?" On  the  contrary, 


- 

is  for  annexation, 

—  and  for  extending  its  circulation  aniong  the 
devoted  FilrpJ.nos,  / 


CHAPTER  IV 

Vital  and  Growing  Importance  of  the  Monroe 
Doctrine 

SOME  of  the  very  papers  that  urge  Asiatic 
annexation  are  becoming  alive  to  the 
greatly  increased  importance  which  the  war  has 
given  to  the  precepts  of  Monroe.  The  enter- 
prising journal  quoted  at  the  end  of  the  last 
chapter  very  sagely  said  on  the  25th  of  August, 
1898 :  "  The  outlook  of  the  country  has  ex- 
panded in  the  Spanish-American  war. 
The  battle  for  the  trade  of  China  is  to  be 
fought,  peacefully  we  hope,  but  possibly,  witli 
guns  and  ships  and  soldiers.  .  .  .  The  pow- 
ers of  Europe  have  in  the  last  fifteen  years  gone 
into  colonization  with  vigor.  Africa  and  Asia 
occupied  their  energies  for  the  time,  but  when 
the  fate  of  China  is  settled  these  continents 
will  have  been  divided. 

"  South  America  remains,  a  vast  area  thinly 
populated,  with  soil  of  great  fertility.  .  .  . 
For  the  future  the  freedom  of  these  lands  de- 
pends on  the  ability  and  disposition  of  the 
United  States  to  fight  for  them.  There  is 
no  doubt  of  the  disposition  of  the  United 


36 

States.  Our  people  are  practically  a  unit 
for  the  enforcement  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine, 
and  are  ready  k>  resent  in  arras  the  at- 
tempt of  any  European  power  to  occupy  any 
part  of  the  American  continents.  But  .  . 
.  it  is  not  impossible  that  there  will  be  a 
combination  of  Europe  to  smash  our  policy." 
Precisely  so.  And  if  we  changed  our  disliked 
policy  from  a  defensive  to  an  offensive  one  the 
possibility  is  pretty  sure  to  become  a  certainty. 
And  a  deplorable  certainty.  For  the  impulse 
which  the  war  has  given  the  Monroe  Doctrine 
is  obvious.  With  the  acquisition  of  Porto  Rico 
and  Hawaii,  to  say  nothing  of  Cuba,  control  of 
the  Nicaragua  Canal  becomes  a  necessity.  In 
that  our  interest  is  paramount.  England  on 
guard  at  Suez,  claims  that  the  canal  there  links 
the  mother-country  to  her  colonies.  The  Nic- 

aragua. Canal  will  do  even  more  for  us.     fiy  it 
•wiTl  2i-nk    i  -11   i       i  i  / 

our  east  and  west  coasts   wni  ee  b^eugm  to- 

gether, a»d--£ttf-6yftte»^£-defen«e  will 


It  -is-40-  be 

In  time  of  war  it  should  be  open  to  our  navy 
and  closed  to  the  navies  of  our  enemies.  Dis- 
pute over  our  control  of  this  waterway  by  any 
European  power  would  be  most  repugnant  to 
the  spirit  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  far  more  re- 
pugnant than  any  foreign  aggression  or  exten- 
sion in  this  Hemisphere  could  have  been  before 


37 

we  shall  hav-e  booomc  possessed  of  so  vulnerable 
a  point  of  attack. 

As  it  is,  we  are  even  now  more  open 
not  merely  to  attack  but  to  invasion  than 
we  have  ever  been  before.  From  such 
ports  and  stations  as  Europe  owns  in  South 
America  or  the  West  Indies,  fleets  could^liar-ry 
our  coasts  or  bombard  them. 


ny  invading  force  would 
speedily  be  confronted  with  five  or  tenfold  its 
number  of  Anglo-Saxons,  and  would  advance 
to  its  own  destruction.  A  suppose,  in  the  future, 
twenty-five  or  fifty  thousand  Germans  or 
Frenchmen  were  to  hold  command  of  the  sea 
long  enough  to  effect  a  landing  in  Cuba  or 
Porto  Rico,  how  difficult  and  dangerous  an  un- 
dertaking it  would  be  for  us  first  to  regain  con- 
trol of  the  sea,Athen  to  transport  thousands  of 
troops,  start«>Hr~kh#a^3rii4~iHa^ 
to  dislodge  the  entrenched  invaders.  At  such 
a  perfectly  supposable  crisis,  if  we  should  be 
unlucky  enough  to  own  the  Philippines,  which 
are  7,000  miles  away  from  us,  and  only  a  few 
hundred  miles  distant  from  strong  and  heavily 
garrisoned  French  and  German  colonies,  what, 
-f  -ask,  would  be  the  advantage  of  having 
Manila  ?  •  /  --,  , 

eonstrueted^  the  Nicaragua  CanalAwitt- 


38 

the  neighboring  lands  and  seas 
will  acquire  new  value  and  strategic  importance. 
Then  more  than  one  power  will  covet  ownership 
of  West  Indian  islands.  For  example,  Den- 
mark is  willing  to  sell  St.  Thomas,  which  would 
be  a  great  prize  for  Germany.  Even  now,  there 
are  indications  that  guardianship  of  the  Nica- 
ragua Canal,  and  preservation  of  the  integrity 
of  the  Western  Hemisphere  may  eventually  tax 
our  national  strength  and  resources  to  their 
fullest  extent  without  the  further  burden  of 

Manila  <*f  r7J  Mo-r£Lgr?Xl:af.SixS&*c 
Manila.;^,  totnrtt'&orZrim  ilT*f  £*£ 

In-^Jj6  Past  the  Monroe  Doctrine  has 
the  greatest  importance  to  our  national  peace 
and  welfare;  standing  upon  the jtfereshold  of  the 
swiftly  advancing  filing  are  we  prepared  to 
abandon  a  Doctrine  of  such  surpassing  value 
that  its  makers,  and  even  we,  ourselves^  cannot 
measure  its  precious  significance  to  millions  yet 


CHAPTER  V 

The  Questions  of  Duty  at  Manila 

o  P  £0  K  TW  z'sr  ty  #/• 
IN  the  realm  of  nature  and  of  law,  anc^of  con- 

1      science,  the   higher  duty   always  governs^/f«f 
When  higher  and  lesser  duties  present  their 
claims,  and  the  conflict  between  them  cannot 


39 

be  adjusted,  the  high  or -ditties  take  precedence 
and  the  bNer  anMiot&to  be  discharge^^. 

What  are  our^highesMuties  at  Manila  ?.A  In 
point  of  time,  those  we  took  there  with  us,Atne 
ones  discussed  in  the  preceding  chapters,  the 
ones  we  hav-e  assumed  to  our  own  race,  to 'our 
own  hemisphere,  and  to  the  powers  of  the  East- 
ern World,  when  we  planted  our  feet  in  the 
paths  marked  out  by  Waohingftoft-in-hia-  fare- 
well-atMregs-ftit4-^3^Mo4iroe  Ad-ams- Jefferson-  & 
Madison  iw^he-Mmrro^J^ootime.  These  duties 
are  and  should  ever  be  paramount.  Nc^  wiser 
or  finer  counsel  for  Americans  at  this. time  can 
be  found  than  the  wa'rningTfie¥Pwe^*fe*v6-'nnes 
of  James  Russell  Lowell: 

u  O,  my  friends  thank  your  God,  if  you  have  one,  that  He 
'Twixt  the  Old  World  and  yon  set  the  gulf  of  a  sea. 
Be  strong-handed,  brown-backed,  upright  as  your  pines, 
By  the  scale  of  a  hemisphere  shape  your  designs." 

As  to  the  various  minor  obligations  imposed 
on  us  or  assumed  by  us  at  Manila,  some  of  them 
are  imaginary;  while  others  may  be  discharged 
without  annexing  Asiatic  soil  and  thus  without 
conflicting  with  our  higher  duties.  Any  prom- 
ises to  the  insurgents  based  on  theoretical 
assumptions  of  annexation  by  us,  are  utterly 
opposed  to  the  spirit  and  genius  of  our  in- 
stitutions, and  to  our  traditional  and  declared 


40 

policy  for  seventy -five  years,  and  should  riot  be 
recognized  by  our  government.  Bu|.  promises 
of  protection  from  Spanish  oppression  or  mis- 
rule, whether  made  to  the  insurgents  in  the  field 
or  to  the  limited  number  of  the  natives  with 
whom  our  forces  have  come  in  contact,  must 
be  fulfilled.  The  fulfilling  of  these  obligations 
does  not  entail  annexation.  They  can  be  dis- 
charged, whatever  nation  may  hold  Manila,  and 
be  enforced  by  making  it  a  condition  of  peace, 
especially  if  we  retain  a  coaling  and  docking 
station  on  the  islands. 

There  is  another  imaginary  dutj-,  of  the  sen- 
timental order.  It  is  said,  when  once  the  Stars 
and  Stripes  goes  up  there  rises  with  the  emblem 
of  freedom  our  obligation  to  it  and  to  ourselves 
never  to  strike  or  furl  it.  We  are  new  to  colo- 
nial wars  and  colonial  conquests,  and  this  is  very 
new  duty.  Will  its  advocates  kindly  point  out 
how  many  wars  there  have  been  in  which  more 
or  less  conquered  territory  was  not  surrendered 
at  the  close  of  the  conflict,  or  traded  for  some 
other  territory?  There  is  hardly  a  war  in  his- 
tory in  which  the  winning  flag  has  not  come 
down  somewhere.  And  it  is  often  clearly  to 
the  victor's  interest  that  it  should. 

If  it  is  not  for  the  best  interests  of  the  United 
States  to  stay  at  Manila,  is  she  obliged  to  do  so 
merely  because  her  standards  have  been  planted 


41 

there?  We  have  recently  been  amused  by  the 
punctilios  and  quixotic  notions  of  Spain  and  of 
certain  Spaniards,  and  a  keen  sense  of  humor 
might  serve  to  check  the  display  on  our  own 
part  of  sentiments  that  are  quite  as  high-flown 
and  fantastic.  These  sentiments  might  seem 
less  absurd  if  we  had  not  gone  to  Manila  solely 
to  destroy  the  enemj^s  fleet  and  to  obtain  a  base 
of  supplies.  It  was  a  measure  forced  upon  us 
by  the  necessities  of  war  and  leaves  us  free  on 
the  return  of  peace  to  depart  from  Manila 
unhampered  by  any  feeling  of  false  or  foolish 
pride. 

But  it  is  urged  there  are  duties  to  the  seven 
or  eight  million  Filipinos,  beyond  the  suburbs 
of  Manila,  who  must  not  only  be  rescued  from 
the  Spanish  }*oke  but  Christianized  and  civilized 
as  well.  The  vagueness  and  the  vastness  of 
the  suggestion  almost  benumb  the  faculties. 
In  what  species  of  crusade  or  knight  errantry 
have  we  embarked  at  the  close  of  this  nine- 
teenth^century,  and  how  far  will  it  conduct  us? 
Untold  millions  of  the  African  race  are  to  day 
living  under  the  sway  of  foreign  powers  with 
whom  at  some  future  time  we  may  have  the 
misfortune  to  be  .at  war.^  (A  few  million  -erf 
trkese  A&4ea-»«  a*er<ru]ed  by  SpaiiOr  if  we 
were  to  send  a  fleet  to  Africa  and  sei^e  a  port  or 
sink  a  ship  or  two,  sjTbuld  we^stop  at  that? 


42 

Would  it  ft^fe  become  a  "  duty  "  to  assume  at 
once  the  role  of  protector  or  of  pedagogue  to 
countless  million  negroes  scattered  over  count- 
less thousand  square  miles  of  swamp  and 
jungle  ?  The  majority  of  the  Malay  and  mixed 
races  of  the  Philippines  are  almost  as  barbarous 
as  the  Africans  and  more  intractable.  Many  of 
these  people  have  shown  no  desire  for  relief 
from  the  Spaniards,  and  others  do  not  require 
it,  being  practically  independent.  The  majority 
of  them  would  not  understand  our  proffered 
kindness.  Some  of  the  islands  are  so  wild, 
rough  and  inaccessible,  and  the  inhabitants  so 
uncivilised  that  i^was  ft?  '  nVa  t  estimated  that 
50,000  or  on?  brave  soldiers  would  be  none  too 
many  for  conquest^  4ke- 


thfe  would  be  re- 

i         A          *\&  .     A  .  c 

q-uired.     As  selfte&pee&kg  Americans  many  ot 


us  are  taught  that  our  highest  duties  lie  nearest 
home.  Nations-  ^id-wJcUvi^ktals  who  rush  pre- 
sumptuously in  ami-take  -up  distant,  indefinite, 
self-assumed  duties  cgs^£u]^ai^_jiot^j2^Ls^ 

Moreover  as  a  missionary  field  it  is  difficult  to 
understand  the  attraction  or  the  promise  of  the 
archipelago.  Many  Protestant  Churches  and 
church  papers  seem,  or  did  seem,  to  look  upon 
it  with  proselytic  eyes.  But  according  to  The 
Catholic  World  about  6,200,000  persons  are 


43 

members  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Communion, 
at  least  nominally,  and  we  are  already  be- 
sought to  quell  not  only  civil  but  religious  war. 
For  the  insurgents  have  risen  against  church  as 
well  as  against  state  and  seek  to  expel  large 
numbers  of  the  friars.  What  will,  their  many 
million  co-religionists  in  this  country  say  to  that? 
And  the  Pope  is  already  and  ^witb  d4gmty  in- 
tervening in  behalf  of  the  persecuted.  If  an- 
nexation is  sought  for  the  purpose  of  bringing 
the  natives  into  the  fold  of  Protestantism  it  will 
invite  bitter  religious  strife  at  home  and  abroad, 
a  strife  foreign  to  our  experience  and  utterly 
opposed  to  our  policy,  and  from  which  every 
patriotic  American  should  shrink.  The  Roman 
Catholic  population  of  the  Philippines  accord- 
ing to  The  Catholic  World  for  August,  1898, 
quoting  a  French  ecclesiastic  authority  is  as 
follows : 

1892  .    .    .  Augustinians,    ....  2,082,131  souls. 

"      ...  Recollects, 1,175,156      " 

.    .    .  Franciscans, 1,010,753 

"         .    .  Dominicans, 699,851 

1895  .    .    .  Jesuits, 213,065      " 


Total, 6,148,250 


All  these  perplexities,  these  new  and  vast 
responsibilities,  we  avoid  if  we  avoid  annexa- 
tion. Humanity  may  demand  that  the  island- 
ers do  not  remain  under  Spanish  rule.  But 


44 

neither  humanity  nor  self-interest  requires  that 
they  come  under  ours.  So  far  as  questions  of 
duty  and  humanity  are  concerned  the  other 
powers,  as  was  indicated  in  a  previous  chapter, 
are  compelled  to  extend  their  sway  over  new 
regions  and  over  barbarous  as  well  as  half  civi- 
lized races.  With  all  the  civilizing  agencies  at 
their  command  and  their  wide  experience,  it 
would  be  pharisaic  to  hold  that  we  alone  can 
restore  prosperity  and  content  among  the  Fili- 
pinos. 

Egypt's  marvelous  transformation  and  ad- 
vance within  the  last  few  years,  is  only  one  of 
the  latest  examples  of  England's  genius  for  rul- 
ing alien  races  and  developing  their  resources. 
Opposite  the  Philippines,  Cochin-China  is  ad- 
vancing and  prosperous  under  the  rule  of 
France.  Russia's  great  success  in  unifying 
Northern  Asia  is  due  to  the  skillful  way  she 
adapts  her  rule  to  new  races,  making  them  first 
content  and  then  anxious  to  be  Russianized. 
Wherever  Germany's  flag  is  raised,  law  and 
order  are  strictly  enforced,  and  thrift  and  enter- 
prise encouraged.  The  Philippines  lie  directly 
in  the  path  of  these  and  other  powers,  and  di- 
rectly within  their  sphere.  The  exigencies  of 
the  Cuban  war  placed  them  in  our  pathway  to 
victory,  but  they  lie  far  outside  our  sphere.  We 
should  therefore  seek  all  the  commercial  and 


45 

financial  opportunities  which  the  situation  at 
Manila  offers,  but  at  the  same  time,  respect  the 
rights  of  other  powers  and  welcome  relief  at 
their  hands  from  the  responsibilities  which  do 
not  rightfully  belong  to  us. 


CHAPTER  VI 
The  Opportunities  at  Manila 

AFTER  a  mighty  and  autocratic  monarch 
has  proposed  disarmament,  lessening  of 
national  strife,  and  advance  toward  ultimate 
peace,  it  would  be  a  strange,  portentous  sight 
for  the  great  and  hitherto  most  peaceful  repub- 
lic of  the  world  to  cross  seven  thousand  miles 
of  ocean  and  cast  her  gauntlet  in  the  face  of 
the  powers,  proclaiming,  "  one  law  for  us  and  an- 
other.for  you  ;  a  Monroe  Doctrine  for  America, 
but  none  for  Asia."  On  the  other  hand  the 
great  republic  can  mightily  help  the  cause  of 
peace  and  of  the  Prince  of  Peace  by  recognizing 
her  clear  responsibilities  to  other  nations  and 
treating  them  with  open  candor  and  good  faith. 
We  cannot,  dare  not,  abandon  our  Monroe 
Doctrine.  Why  then  seek  to  compromise  it? 
Why  not  rather  safeguard  it  for  the  future  by 
fully  and  freely  recognizing  its  Old  World 


46 

counterpart?  Here  lies  our  first  and  greatest 
opportunity  at  Manila.  And  to  seize  such  an 
opportunity  will  be  extremely  politic  as  well  as 
righteous.  To  retire  from  the  Old  World,  or 
at  least  to  offer  to  retire,  on  the  ground  that  \ve 
claim  no  territory  there,  will  vastly  strengthen 
and  sanction  our  attitude  in  the  New  World. 
We  may  then  pursue  our  career  and  fulfil  our 
destiny  in  our  own  hemisphere  without  fear  of 
check  or  hindrance  from  any  quarter  of  the 
globe. 

Fortunately  this  path  is  still  open.  The  pro- 
tocol is  merely  preliminary,  the  final  terms  of 
peace  are  entirely  unsettled, — at  least  so  far  as 
the  Philippines  are  concerned.  It  appears  that 
we  shall  have  plenty  of  time  to  think,  plenty 
of  time  to  revise  our  estimate  of  the  value  of 
the  islands,  and  to  appreciate  the  enormous  ex- 
pense and  responsibilities  their  possession  will 
involve.  So  far  as  commercial  and  other  op- 
portunities are  concerned,  we  may  find  almost 
as  effectual  a  way  to  improve  them  without  an- 
nexation as  with  it,  and  in  doing  so  we  may  en- 
large our  field  of  operations  far  beyond  the 
Philippine  group. 

Little  thought  has  been  devoted  to  these 
considerations,  public  attention  having  been 
diverted  in  other  directions  largely  owing  to 
the  persistent  clamor  in  regard  to  the  mainte- 


47 

nance  of  our  alleged  rights,  and  to  the  discharge 
of  our  self-imposed  duties  at  Manila.  Suppose, 
however,  that  by  the  final  treaty  of  peace,  we 
are  granted  a  coaling  and  naval  station  near 
Manila  and  one  in  the  Ladrones;  that  we  are 
also  given  a  power  to  sell  the  islands  to  the 
highest  bidder,  or  to  several  such  bidders.  Out 
of  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  we  ought  first  to  be 
paid  all  the  expenses  of  the  conquest  and  oc- 
cupation ;  also,  as  a  commission  for  effecting 
such  sale,  a  sum  of  five  or  ten  million  dollars, 
sufficient  to  fortify  our  stations  at  Manila  and 
vicinity,  at  Hawaii  and  Pago  Pago, — and  per- 
haps one  on  the  coast  of  China,  obtained  with 
the  consent  of  the  powers  in  return  for  ceding 
our  territorial  claims  on  the  islands.  Any  pur- 
chase money  in  excess  of  ten  million  and  our 
military  expenses  might  be  paid  to  Spain  for 
relinquishing  her  rights  in  the  islands  to  their 
new  rulers. 

If  any  such  arrangement  can  be  made  it 
would  be  the  second  greatest  opportunity  of 
the  situation.  We  should  be  in,  rather  than 
largely  out  of  pocket.  And,  what  is  more,  the 
trade  of  China  is  of  infinitely  greater  value 
than  the  trade  of  the  Philippines.  The  former 
is  our  real  objective,  commercially  speaking. 
There  can  be  little  fear  of  opposition  on  the 
part  of  China.  Our  appearance  at  a  port  ou 


48 

the  Yellow  Sea  would  help  maintain  the  integ- 
rity of  the  Chinese  Empire,  and  be  as  wel- 
come to  England  as  to  China.  And  if  that 
empire  cannot  be  held  together  very  many 
years  longer  we  should  be  in  a  position  there 
to  assert  and  guard  a  fcw  sphere  of  commercial 
influence,"  and  we  would  be  as  fully  entitled 
to  this  as  are  any  of  the  other  powers. 

A  moment's  reflection  will  show  that  from  a 
commercial  standpoint  we  have  a  personal  in- 
terest in  England's  trade  with  the  Orient  that 
should  cause  us  to  view  any  injury  to  it  with 
concern  and  apprehension.  England  is  to-day 
by  far  the  largest  and  best  customer  the  Amer- 
ican market  can  boast.  But  her  purchasing 
power  will  be  greatly  crippled  if  her  rivals  suc- 
ceed in  appropriating  her  share  of  the  trade  of 
the  East,  which  at  the  present  time  they  seem 
bent  on  doing.  In  the  For  inn  for  August,  1898, 
Professor  Brooks  Adams  has  convincingly  dem- 
onstrated that  from  the  very  dawn  of  history, 
trade  with  the  Orient  has  given  its  possessors 
wealth  and  commercial  leadership  in  the  world. 
From  every  point  of  view  then,  China,  far  be- 
fore Manila,  is  our  commercial  goal. 

Important  trading  privileges,  it  is  said,  are  to 
be  had  at  the  islands  for  the  asking.  Some 
have  been  mentioned  in  the  dispatches,  and  no 
doubt  are  under  consideration.  It  has  been 


49 

proposed  that  American  goods  enter  Philippine 
ports  duty  free,  or  with  protective  tariffs  on 
some  lines  of  merchandise.  Ail  such  conces- 
sions, however,  could  be  made  or  ratified  in 
treaties  of  sale  to  other  nations. 

Of  course  it  will  be  said  that  any  plan  to 
transfer  the  Philippines  to  European  or  Asiatic 
powers  presents  many  difficulties.  That  may 
be  granted  without,  conceding  that  the  difficul- 
ties cannot  be  overcome.  From  recent  disclos- 
ures it  does  not  seem  likely  that  Spain  in  her 
impoverished  condition  would  be  averse  to  be- 
ing relieved  of  her  charge,  a  most  turbulent 
and  expensive  one.  The  prospect  of  twenty, 
thirty,  or  forty  millions  surplus  from  a  sale 
would  probably  be  an  added  inducement. 

The  second  difficulty  would  proceed  from  the 
powers.  It  has  been  frequently  urged  that  the 
powers  could  never  agree  among  themselves  to 
a  partition  of  the  islands,  and  therefore  they 
would  prefer  the  islands  to  remain  in  Spanish 
or  American  hands.  Almost  all  suggestions  of 
this  kind  however,  have  proceeded  from  Eng- 
lish sources,  and  England's  motives  for  wishing 
to  keep  us  at  Manila  have  already  been  given. 
Moreover,  as  we  have  also  seen  some  of  the 
other  powers  have  taken  quite  a  different  line 
and  have  plainly  hinted  at  the  Monroe  Doctrine 
of  Asia,  as  they  call  it.  To  some  of  the  pow- 


50 

ers  the  islands  present  many  politic  and  strate- 
gic, as  well  as  commercial  advantages.  They 
have  had  so  much  practice  abroad  in  adjusting 
their  "  balance  of  power  "and  in  granting  to 
one  nation  "  compensation  "  for  the  advantage 
secured  by  another  that  they  have  become  ex- 
perts in  such  matters. 

And  with  so  many  islands  to  choose  from, 
extending  through  many  degrees  of  latitude 
and  of  abounding  resources,  it  ought  not  to 
be  difficult  to  agree  upon  a  fairly  satisfactory 
division.  Such  agreement  is  clearly  to  the  in- 
terest of,  at  least  some  of  the  powers,  and 
where  two  of  the  parties  to  a  bargain  have  a 
clear  interest  in  making  it,  the  bargain  is  pretty 
well  assured  so  far  as  those  two  are  concerned. 

There  remains  only  the  party  of  the  third 
part,  the  United  States  of  America.  Of  course 
the  whole  of  this  pamphlet  aims  to  show  that 
we  have  more  to  gain  by  the  proposed  arrange- 
ment than  any  of  the  other  possible  parties  to  it. 
The  reported  attempt  of  one  power  to  interfere 
witli  the  operations  at  Manila,  even  if  con- 
firmed, ought  not  to  blind  us  to  the  rights  of 
other  powers  or  to  our  own  true  interests.  In 
such  a  case  and,  if  only  for  fear  of  being  left 
out  of  future  consideration  or  consultation,  the 
offending  power  would  surely  give  redress. 
Besides,  as  has  been  fully  urged,  our  right  to 


51 

resent  or  repel  interference  with  our  military 
movements  at  Manila  does  not  necessarily 
involve  a  right  to  resent  opposition  to  the  dis- 
posal of  the  islands,  for  m4h]-sJat£a£  ui$ta**ee,  the 
rights  of  other  powers  are  affected. 

There  has  been  a  studied  effort  to  confuse 
the  distinction  and  to  maintain  that  any  foreign 
objections  would  be  as  intolerable  after  as  dur- 
ing the  war.  On  the  contrary,  by  persisting  in 
such  an  attitude,  the  intolerance  becomes  ours. 
To  assert  that  the  near  neighbors  of  the  Philip- 
pines have  no  interest  or  voice  in  their  future 
is  both  arrogant  and  untrue,  and  makes  our 
Monroe  Doctrine  appear  grossly  and  offensively 
unjust.  Instead  of  being  forced  to  recognize 
this  we  should  be  the  first  to  do  so,  and  should 
proceed  to  take  the  initiative  by  calling  a  con- 
ference, or  at  least  by  consulting  the  powers 
concerned.  If  they,  for  any  reason,  are  unable 
to  agree,  or-fee-  waive  their  interests,  our  position 
at  home  and  abroad  will  then  be  unassailable. 
If  we  ignore  their  claims,  we  are  likely  to  find 
ourselves  confronted  with  a  strong  coalition  in 

coalition  against 


»s  in  America. 

We  proclaimed  this  war  to  be  one  of  human- 
ity and  civilization.  We  cannot  afford  to  close 
the  campaign  in  a  spirit  of  greed  or  wantonly 
to  ignore  the  rights  of  other  nations.  The 


Monroe  Doctrine  is  worth  five  hundred  Manilas. 
In  the  scales  with  the  Monroe  Doctrine  lie  our 
national  honor  and  our  national  credit.  Will 
the  people  of  the  United  States  exchange  these 
for  Manila? 


OP  TV* 

UNIVERSITY 


IMMIGRATION  FALLACIES 

The  Only  Recent  Book  on  Immigration 


BY 


JOHN  CHETWOOD 

AUTHOR  OF  "  MANILA,  OR-  MONROE  DOCTRINE?" 
PAPER.     147  pp.  25   CENTS. 


"  A  most  admirable  presentation  of  a  most,  important  subject.''— 
Rt.  Rev.  W.  C.  Doane,  D.D.,  LL.  D.,  Bishop  of  Albany. 

"Admirably  written  and  extremely  well  calculated  for  its  pur- 
pose. It  should  be  widely  circulated."— $2/d?ie?/  G.  Fisher,  Author 
of  Evolution  of  United  Slates  Constitution,  etc. 

•'  Very  interesting  and  valuable.  A  powerful  contribution  to  one 
of  the  most  momentous  questions  affecting  American  civilization." 
—John  J.  Ing  alls,  ex-Senator  of  the  United  States. 

••It  seems  to  me  your  argument  is  unanswerable."—  Joseph  Le 
Conte,  LL.  D.,  Sc.,  etc.,  Professor  in  Geology  in  the  University 
of  California. 

'  "I  wish  every  citizen  of  the  United  States  might  read  your  little 
book."— Frank  Soule,  Ph.D.,  etc.,  Professor  Civil  Engineering, 
University  of  California. 

"  I  read  the  book  with  grea.t  interest."— John  G.  Plibben,  Ph.  D., 
Professor  of  Logic  in  Princeton  University. 

"A  very  clear  and  convincing  statement  of  the  enormous  evils 
resulting  from  immigration."— Pacific  Churchman,  S.  F. 

"A  very  excellent  little  book  on  a  very  important  subject."— 
Buffalo  Courier. 

"A  very  full  and  interesting  discussion  of  the  immigration  prob- 
lem."— Minneapolis  Times. 

"  Most  ably  written  and  forceful  in  argument."— Philadelphia 
Item. 

4<  A  clever  and  valuable  little  volume."— Toledo  Blade. 

"  The  book  merits  a  wide  circulation  and  careful  reading."— 
Chicago  Interior. 


PUBLISHERS 
ROBERT  LEWIS  WEED  COMPANY 

63  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK 


LIMITATION  OF  WEALTH 


OR 


How  to  Secure  Prosperity  for  All 


BY 

E.  N.  OLLY 


"  The  doctrine  of  Limitation  does  not  deny  any  of  the  essential  rights  ol 
men.  Quantity  and  not  the  Right  of  property  is  at  fault.  It  is  the  too 
muck  and  the  too  little  that  create  the  untold  miseries  in  this  world. 

"  Let  no  one  own  more  than  $1,000,000  of  American  property." 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

Chapter  I. — Concentration  of  Wealth  in  the  United  States 
"        II.  "  "     Income         "  " 

"        III.  "  "     Savings         "  " 

IV.  "  "     Real  Estate  " 

"        V.  "  "     Securities      "  " 

"        VI. — Army  of  the  Unemployed    "  " 

"        VII. — Trusts  and  Monopolies        "  " 

VIII.— Why  Utopia  Failed 
"        IX.— Other  Remedies  that  Failed 
"        X. — Limitation  the  Only  Remedy 


PAPER.    PRICE    10    CENTS 


PUBLISHERS 

ROBERT  LEWIS  WEED  COMPANY 
63  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 

Return  to  desk  from  which  borrowed. 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


7Jan»52HK 


££R2  41956  LU 


LD 

196? 


LD  21-100w-7,'52(A2528sl6)476 


